Les Jones

Food & Drink > Iced Tea and Iced Tea Makers

Slate: What makes Southern sweet tea so special?

Speaking of which, I need to sing the praises of the electric iced tea maker. I was skeptical at first. I didn't see the point of cluttering the kitchen with another appliance when we can make tea with a pot on the stove.

After Melissa brought the iced tea maker home I had a complete change of heart. I use it more than she does. Instead of making iced tea three or four times a year we now make it three or four times a week. The appeal is that you can add water, tea bags, and sugar and walk away. When you come back the iced tea is finished and the whole process is as foolproof as making coffee. Along with frozen biscuits the electric iced tea maker is moving Southern culture forward into the 21st century.

We have this Mr. Coffee iced tea maker, which is far from perfect. The fill line is actually the seam between the upper and lower cylinders, so if you overfill water pours out. If you jostle the machine after you've removed the pitcher the last bit of tea runs out onto the countertop. Still, it makes good tea and we use it all the time. I'll buy a different model when this one wears out, but as God as my witness I'll never go without an iced tea maker again!

Our house recipe is two large Luzianne tea bags, two Red Rose tea bags, and either a cup of sugar or half a cup of sugar and three packets of Sweet N Low. Lately we've been unable to find Red Rose tea, so we're using a third bag of Luzianne.

Some people like lemon in their iced tea and some don't. For me squeezing a slice of fresh lemon into the glass makes good iced tea heavenly. The sour lemon juice balances the astringency and sweetness of the tea and the lemon oil from the rind gives the glass an intoxicatingly powerful bouquet.