A question on Sweet Tea

[Delmonico]

I posted this in Cosies Corner, but thought I would ask it here also. 

In my area making unsweetened iced tea is the most popular way, those who want it sweet just add sugar after the fact.

What I am looking for here is does anyone have any evidence/proof of it being made by adding the sugar while it is brewing before the early 20th Century.  It is another one of those items that is hard to track down, it seems logical someone might have done it.

The only references to sugar only mentions it as being added to the tea at serving or mentions that it should not be added because it destroys the flavor of the tea.

I did find one reference in the 19th Century of making cold brew iced tea. 

I am looking for straight facts here, a recipe from a dated cookbook, a hand written recipe from Great Grandma's Mother, or anything like that.

I'm looking to satisfy myself, as for making it in camp, if several people wanted it, I would make it on hot days because it would be good for people, not because it was PC.

BTW if anyone Wiki's it, I already did, I leave no stone unturned, the 1879 book "House Keeping in Old Virginia" I have access to, the sugar in the recipe wiki mentioned adds the sugar after the brewing. 

[Tjackstephens]

Delmonico, Even today in the south the sugar is added after the tea is brewed. It is added while the tea is still hot, so the sugar will blend in as stirred. Then it is put in the frid or ice added. I have never heard of sugar in the brewing process. Tj

[Delmonico]

A lot of older recipes do mention it being added with the tea as it brews, it really don't make any difference if it's added after the tea is removed or not as long as it's dissolved before chilling. 

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Del
I looked on google and found a few references on sweet tea . a 1839 cook book( the Kentucky Housewife ) by Mrs.Lettice Bryanon
1879 House keeping in old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree  1884 Mrs Lincoln's Boston Cook Book and the recipe is on page 112
I first looked on Yahoo and they listed the Kentucky version as 1983 instead of 1839 . Don't know which is correct . Hope these will answer your questions . Looks like tea was grown near Charleston S.C. in 1799 .

[Delmonico]

Del
I looked on google and found a few references on sweet tea . a 1839 cook book( the Kentucky Housewife ) by Mrs.Lettice Bryanon
1879 House keeping in old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree  1884 Mrs Lincoln's Boston Cook Book and the recipe is on page 112
I first looked on Yahoo and they listed the Kentucky version as 1983 instead of 1839 . Don't know which is correct . Hope these will answer your questions . Looks like tea was grown near Charleston S.C. in 1799 .

I've looked them all over except the Kentucky Housewife one, they all refer to sweetening tea when it's put in the glass.  To be truthful it's kind of a mute point, but one of those little details I can't quite put a finger on.  I can be 1000% sure iced tea was not invented at the 1904 Saint Louis World's Fair like a lot of references say.  Wonder if I can find a Kentucky Housewife book on Line.

BTW if anyone is interested in old cookbooks this site is a jewel.   

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/browse.html#K

Thanks for the effort Rowdy.

[Ima Sure Shot]

Its the chemistry involved.  The heat allows the brew to  be super saturated.  I googled a histroy of Ice tea and found the same references Rowdy did.  The 1839 kentucky cookbook reference gave the instructions. Celeste

[Delmonico]

OK, I have seen that recipe, I'm am obsessing a bit on details, but I'm trying to get things as right as I can for my book on cooking for renactors.  (BTW someone will ask, the goal is spring of 2015, to dang many little details I have to have right in my mind, plus some things I still need to try.)

1839- The 1839 cookbook, The Kentucky Housewife, by Mrs. Lettice Bryanon, was typical of the American tea punch recipes:
Tea Punch – Make a pint and a half of very strong tea in the usual manner; strain it, and pour it boiling (hot) on one pound and a quarter of loaf sugar. (That's 2 1/2 cups white sugar) Add half a pint of rich sweet cream, and then stir in gradually a bottle of claret or of champaign (sic). You may heat it to the boiling point, and serve it so, or you may send it round entirely cold, in glass cups.

What is funny is if it uses alcohol in it and is a tea punch the sugar is added while the water is hot and before pouring in the glasses.  Iced tea it gets added to the glass and I can't find any reference to an iced tea with out the alcohol till right about the end of the Civil War.

I think I need to see what happens with the posts here and myself just walk away from it for a while, I've been on this one since Wedsday.  

[Delmonico]

Its the chemistry involved.  The heat allows the brew to  be super saturated.  I googled a histroy of Ice tea and found the same references Rowdy did.  The 1839 kentucky cookbook reference gave the instructions. Celeste

Yeah, that part I understand, read my last post and you'll see I may just be being a bit to obsessive, because to be truthful if a bunch of folks from down south showed up in my camp I'd make them sweet tea per spec if I had an extra container for it.   

[River City John]

Yeah, that part I understand, read my last post and you'll see I may just be being a bit to obsessive, because to be truthful if a bunch of folks from down south showed up in my camp I'd make them sweet tea per spec if I had an extra container for it.   

Delmonico, I have another of those big orange Igloo coolers for the period correct Sweet Tea I can bring should you need it.

RCJ

[Delmonico]

Bring it along, we'll make it if someone will drink it.  I will get some covers built for them like I've been planning.

[River City John]

I already have a plain canvas laundry bag I use to camouflage it. 

RCJ

[1961MJS]

Hi Del

Your attempt at being period correct does you credit. 

I started reading a lot of Westerns both novels and non-fiction the past few years.  My Dad was a huge Louis Lamour fan.  I can't remember seeing the term "tea" anywhere yet.  I own Yellowstone Kelly's biography and am reading Al Seiber's biography.  So far they mention whiskey, water (and how bad it tastes) and Coffee.  I'll look in the indices and keep an eye out, but I"m not hopeful. and I LOVE SWEET TEA.

Just my $0.02 and worth both pennies.

[Delmonico]

There are lots of tea on old grocery lists, but it doesn't fit into the manly sound of a Western novel.  Kind of like rice, as common on the trail as beans and much easier and quicker to fix. 

[Mogorilla]

During the early expansion, prior to our covered time frame but more rendevous era, I believe tea was more prevelant.   The brick tea from china last forever and is really easily transported.   I believe it was in the crates a few patriots tossed into boston harbor.   I think I first recall hearing about it when I read Centennial.  

[Delmonico]

During the early expansion, prior to our covered time frame but more rendevous era, I believe tea was more prevelant.   The brick tea from china last forever and is really easily transported.   I believe it was in the crates a few patriots tossed into boston harbor.   I think I first recall hearing about it when I read Centennial.  

Tea was cheaper and easier to prepare in the time.  Despite what we were taught in school, the colonials kept drinking tea, smuggled in by the Dutch with out tax just like before the tea party. 

It wasn't till the great plantations became established in Brazil and other parts of the new world in the 1820's-1840's that coffee out sold tea in this country.  Coffeefrom the Middle Eastr and the East Indies was expensive.

[1961MJS]

There are lots of tea on old grocery lists, but it doesn't fit into the manly sound of a Western novel.  Kind of like rice, as common on the trail as beans and much easier and quicker to fix. 

Makes sense Del.  I ain't read anything about Rice either.  Beans, and fresh bread (cause it was a big trest), but not rice.

Later

[Blair]

Del,

Why not just have some sort of sweetner, and or perhaps ice for those that may wish it with their tea?
Then there is always forgetting serving tea of any kind at all to anyone, North or South?
Cowboy chuck ain't bad by itself, for those that have never tried it.

[Delmonico]

Del,

Why not just have some sort of sweetner, and or perhaps ice for those that may wish it with their tea?
Then there is always forgetting serving tea of any kind at all to anyone, North or South?
Cowboy chuck ain't bad by itself, for those that have never tried it.

I am no longer worried that much about what is being served as cold drinks on a hot day, kind of like the Gatorade I serve out by the gallons at the GAF Muster at Sargent, it has become an unanswered question I would like the answer to.  Hard to explain, but it is just a mystery that may be lost to time. 

[Peachey Carnehan]

I've contacted friends whose families trace back to the mid 19th centuries (or before) in Alabama and Virginia, and they said they'll look around, but they're fairly certain that they have documented sweet tea recipes. I'll post what I find out though.