No drink has a closer connection to Southern culture than sweet tea. Every town in the South—heck, every household in the South—takes pride in its sweet tea-related traditions, and there’s no quicker way to start a spirited conversation with Southerners than to ask them how they like their tea.
While there’s certainly something to be said for sticking with a classic recipe passed down through generations, we also encourage Southerners (whether you’re a lifer or a newcomer to the region) to play around with sweet tea ingredients and find the combination that best suits their tastes. To aid in that goal, we asked a group of Southern chefs and bartenders to share the “secret ingredients” that help them make the best sweet tea ever.
Turbinado Sugar
As any baker can tell you, all sugars are not created equal. For sweet tea, Carl Miller, the executive chef of Rita’s Seaside Grille in Folly Beach, South Carolina, prefers a minimally processed style of cane sugar known as turbinado. Turbinado sugar features larger grains that dissolve more slowly than white sugar, which allows the tea’s sweetness to build in a gradual way instead of all at once. This sugar also offers a rich molasses-like flavor note, which can be really appealing in sweet tea.
Miller tells that his “momma’s secret ingredient in the sweet tea is ‘Sugar In The Raw’,” which is a popular brand of turbinado sugar. He continues to reach for this sugar when making sweet tea because “it gives the tea a fuller and sweeter flavor.”
Spring Water
When it comes to making an unforgettable pitcher of sweet tea, executive chef Jonah Bordner of High Cotton in Charleston says that “I personally think it’s all about the water.” Bordner allows that choosing the right sugar and tea are crucial elements of a successful sweet tea (he tells us that he prefers “unrefined cane sugar” and “Oliver Pluff & Co. [tea]”), but “high-quality spring water will ensure a clean taste.”
Oleo Saccharum
For Martha Davis, lead bartender at The Marigold Club in Houston, the best “secret ingredient” for sweet tea is a back-bar staple: “Oleo saccharum! It’s super easy to make at home.”…