MOST AMERICANS MAY HAVE A GLASS OF ICED TEA from time to time during the summer, but so beloved and sacred is “ice’ tea” below the Mason-Dixon Line that Southerners couldn’t survive without the brew on a daily basis twelve months of the year—at brunches, picnics, church suppers, cookouts, and formal dinners; at beach parties, pig pickin’s, football games, and bereavement buffets; and as much at fancy restaurants as at barbecue joints and diners. (Little wonder that the only tea leaves grown in the United States are on Wadmalaw Island off the coast of South Carolina.) The varieties are endless (sugar tea, mint tea, spice tea, Russian tea, lemon tea, sun tea), and so engrained is ice’ tea in Southern culture that such legendary concoctions as St. Cecilia’s Punch, Chatham Artillery Punch, goalpost punch, and all sorts of cotillion and wedding punches are based on the brewing of tea leaves. Generally, Southerners have no use for exotic or weirdly flavored teas, and we pay little attention to the trendy practice of making ice’ tea only with bottled water. We are careful to brew our tea in a nonreactive pot to prevent a bitter metallic taste, and we also know that ice’ tea is almost as good brewed in a drip coffee maker as in a pot. Never would we dilute tea by using crushed ice, and if tea happens to cloud when stored in the refrigerator, we know to clear it by simply adding a little hot water before serving it. And never forget that when somebody in the South says, “How ’bout a glass of tea?” the implication is ice’ tea.

Makes 2 quarts

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons loose orange pekoe tea or 12 tea bags
• 2 quarts cold water
• Sugar to taste
• Lemon wedges, for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place the loose tea or tea bags in a large nonreactive pot.
2. In another large pot, bring the water to a rolling boil.
3. Pour the boiling water over the tea in the pot.
4. Let the tea steep for 10 minutes or to desired strength.
5. Allow the tea to cool to room temperature.
6. If using loose tea, strain the tea through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a large pitcher. If using tea bags, squeeze and discard the tea bags and pour the tea into the pitcher.
7. Sweeten the tea with sugar to taste, if desired.
8. Fill tall glasses with ice cubes (not crushed ice).
9. Pour the sweetened tea over the ice cubes in the glasses.
10. Garnish the glasses with lemon wedges.
11. Serve and enjoy!