Sweet Iced Tea

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No other drink quite captures the essence of the South as sweet iced tea.

Lots of ice. Lots of sugar. And often lots of lemon.

Every meal is served with it. It is offered upon arrival in someone’s home. McDonald’s sells it. Gallons of it are brought to feed grieving family members.

The definition of “sweet” is up to interpretation…One evening while we watched scoops of sugar slip into her pitcher, my cousin’s wife told of how her mother’s iced tea was sickeningly sweet…

Of all the tea we’ve drunk, none compares to my mother’s though…8 Lipton tea bags steeped in 6 or so cups of water that has been brought to boiling…2 cups of sugar…about 10 more cups of water stirred in to make the perfect gallon of sweet iced tea…