House Wine of the South…In Pennsylvania

House Wine of the South…In Pennsylvania

July 5th, 2011 @ 1:05 pm by Miss Sweet Cream
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I know that some sweet bubbly and celebrations go hand and hand. I get it, I really do.

But wedding after wedding that I go to I see champagne go to waste since everyone doesn’t partake in the goodness of the bubbly. And to tell you the truth, I think that is blasphemy. I personally love me some sparkly wine. But then again there really there is a never any kind of wine that I turn my back on.

But Mr. Sweets isn’t exactly into champagne. He likes his wine the sweet side, just like his women I guess…

Since we were having our wedding at a winery, we had to partake in their wine choices only, which meant that the sweet bubbly we had to get from them would cost a pretty penny. And with cost, the fear of champagne waste and Mr. Sweets’ sweet palate against us, I wanted to figure out another option.

No worries—besides champagne I actually love vintage bottles.

Such pretty bottles…

Image via My Sweet Savannah / Credit: All About You Magazine

…would not only make a great centerpiece…

Image via Maine Seasons

…but a great show-stopper element for a toast!

Image via Tracie Mobley / Credit: Martha Stewart

(FYI: The last pic is the oh-so-genius Martha camp’s reuse of vintage bottles for dishwashing suds. So creative, I know.)

So as the summer months went by I soon had a collection of assorted bottles to put the “toast juice” in. While my mind was originally leaning towards homemade limoncello, to go with our yellow & grey color scheme, I soon realized that this was super silly, since what does Italian lemon liquor have to do with mouth watering BBQ, anyway?

Needless to say with the craze of Sweet Tea Vodka not getting old any time soon (well at least not for me), I thought that that would be just the perfect “toast juice” for any kind words about us where people raise their glasses.

DIY Iced Tea in Vintage Soda Bottles with New Corks = Adorable

Image via Country Living / Photo credit: Burcu Avsar

I think that combining Sweet Tea —or as Dolly Parton’s character in Steel Magnolias puts it, the “house wine of the South”—with some vodka in a vintage bottle, whipping up a cute tag in my very favorite font and using some yellow twine, would be the perfection I was looking for toast time.

So I delved into cookbooks and scoured the Internet in search for the perfect sweet tea recipe….

Image via Etsy Seller Tcart2010

I read about tips about using a pinch of baking soda to take out the bitterness and about how you must dissolve the sugar when the water is piping hot. I saw some recipes use 2 cups of sugar and other recipes make a sweet simple syrup. A couple say to ice it up right away, while others argue that it dilutes the tea too quickly.

During my quest to find the perfect Sweet Tea for my homemade Sweet Tea Vodka, I wisely realized that I was from Pennsylvania. What the heck does a Philadelphian know about Sweet Tea? Cheesesteaks? Yes. Tea so good that babies bury their heads into glasses of it and don’t come up for air? Not so much.

Am I the only bride out there not using champagne for toasts? What did you use?

I’m asking all the Southern Belles (and any other Belles above the Mason-Dixon line): what’s your sweet tea recipe that you swear by?

Bring it to me, hive!

Tags: decor, food, philadelphia |

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21 Responses to “House Wine of the South…In Pennsylvania”

1 2 Last

Bee

Mrs. Hyena (message) 1,882 posts, Buzzing bee

I’ve never been a big champagne fan either, but I do have to say the best combo ever: leftover wedding cake and champagne. DOOOO ITTTTT.

7/5/11 @ 1:12 pm (reply)

Member

ohheavenlyday (message) 2,400 posts, Buzzing bee

I just posted a recipe for Southern sweet tea (I am from Georgia) on my blog. I don’t think I can post a link here, but I’ll write it out. This is the recipe we use at home:

1 small saucepan of water with 2 family sized LUZIANNE brand tea bags in it. Luzianne is a must. It makes perfect sweet tea. Bring this to a rolling boil, take it off when it begins to roll. In a pitcher, put in 1 cup of sugar and pour the hot tea concentrate DIRECTLY ON TOP. YOU MUST do this for Southern sweet tea because the sugar dissolves best in the hot tea. Fill up the remainder of your pitcher with water, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and serve over lots of ice.

You will obviously need to make quite a few batches of this for a bunch of guests, but don’t make it TOO far in advance because the tea starts to get kind of sludgy and syrupy after a couple days. I would make the tea you need no more than 48 hours before the wedding. (This amount will make approximately 6-8 glasses.)

7/5/11 @ 1:15 pm (reply)

Member

victoria.snoddy (message) 52 posts, Worker bee

Milk!!! We are using milk. Because really, who doesn’t love a glass of milk with their cupcake or slice of cake? yay!!

7/5/11 @ 1:16 pm (reply)

Member

ohheavenlyday (message) 2,400 posts, Buzzing bee

(And only serve over ice if you’re drinking it right away; do not pour ice in the pitcher or anything like that if you’re keeping it for later. Just refrigerate it to get it cool.)

7/5/11 @ 1:17 pm (reply)

Guest

BBQ goodness sister! Lol. We are going with sweet tea vodka already prepared. Current favorites are Jeremiah Weed and Firefly mint sweet tea vodka. Both come in several flavors. Both are delicious! Sooooo appropriate for the special event!

7/5/11 @ 1:23 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Elephant (message) 6,182 posts, Bee Keeper

I love sweet tea! If the champagne wasn’t included in our package we probably wouldn’t have paid for it. I agree with you, that too much of it probably went to waste.

7/5/11 @ 1:24 pm (reply)

Member

kimbee23 (message) 191 posts, Blushing bee

We are forgoing champagne for sparkling wine. Sparkling wines are so much sweeter and double as a dessert wine! Same sort of thing as champagne, but so much better! We are purchasing our own, so I have been buying a bottle every time I go to the grocery store, that way the cost is dispersed. We did a taste test of a few different champagnes, perseccos, and sparkling wines and are going to use Martini and Rossi’s Asti. It actually tastes good to someone (me) who doesn’t really like wine!

7/5/11 @ 1:51 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Pony (message) 4,175 posts, Honey bee

FSIL Pony swears by the baking soda rule even though I’ve never tried it. Mr. P taught me to make sweet tea like so:
Put 1 cup of sugar in pitcher. Then add a pot of boiling water to the pitcher/sugar. Place tea bag(s) in pitcher so they can brew in the water. Once done brewing, remove the tea bags and fill the pitcher with cold water. Somewhere in there you should stir up the tea to make sure your sugar is evenly distributed. Serve over ice or chill in the fridge (after it’s room temp so you don’t spoil food of course).
We prefer this method because it cuts down the number of dishes we have to clean
I think sweet tea vodka sounds amazing! Your guests will love it!

7/5/11 @ 2:11 pm (reply)

Member

Knubbsy-Wubbsy (message) 2,395 posts, Buzzing bee

After living in the south, and growing up in PA I can tell you, Turkey Hill Sweet Tea is just as sweet at sweet tea in the south- but I think tastes better. Bonus, you can now buy Turkey Hill Tea in Texas! (which not only validates my argument to FH that I grew up on sweet tea, but also made me do a little dance when I found that Kroger’s carried it)

If you are not completely set on doing 100% homemade, I would say pick up a couple gallons Tea and call it a day. (apparently they now also have a blackberry sweet tea too)

7/5/11 @ 2:17 pm (reply)

10.

Member

Misslizzy (message) 282 posts, Helper bee

I’m not doing a champagne toast… we’re going a “drink what you have” toast. We’ll save money on drinks and glasses! WOOT!

7/5/11 @ 2:54 pm (reply)

11.

Member

spoiledvamp27 (message) 492 posts, Helper bee

As a good ol’ Alabama girl, I think I have a bit of insight into sweet tea. After all, it ties with milk for my favorite drink. You must put the sugar in while the tea is hot. It simply will not dissolve properly if you put it in when it is cold and will still end up tasting like bitter unsweetened tea with gritty sugar in it. And I wouldn’t put the ice in ahead of time, personally. I would just keep it refrigerated so it does not dilute the tea. Then serve over ice or just keep the bottles buried in ice until toasting time.

7/5/11 @ 2:56 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

Rita

I only lived in the south for a year and was raised in PA, but my mother and her entire family are from the south. (I have cousins, aunts, and uncles in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama) Well anyway I was raised on good ol’ southern food. Best Fried chicken of my life, delicious corn bread WITH EVERY MEAL, and of course sweet tea.

There should never be an arguement about when to put the sugar in. It is common sense that hot liquids dissolve sugar more than cold liquids do.

-boil the water
-throw in the tea bags (# of bags depends on how much you are making I use 8 little or 2 BIG for 1 gallon)
-remove from heat cover and let the tea bags brew in the hot water for a bit.
-add 2 cups sugar to 1 gallon container
-pour hot tea into container
-FILL THE SAME POT WITH THE TEA BAGS STILL IN IT with hot water from your faucet & poor into container
-stir until sugar is dissolved
-fill the rest of the way up with luke warm or warm water(again using the pot with the tea bags and water from your faucet) If you fill the container up straight from the faucet you run the risk of watering down your tea. Adding the water to the brewed tea bags adds a little flavor to the water before you mix it in.
-Chill in fridge and serve over ice. If you want some right away throw some ice in a seperate glass and drink it that way. throwing ice into the WHOLE container will water down your tea.
I don’t like to add cold water after I dissolved the sugar in the hot mixture because you still don’t get enough tea flavor from the brewed tea bags. So you should really just chill it in the fridge before you drink it.

That makes the best sweet tea ever. I like my sweet tea a little less sweet than most southerners so if you like you can adjust the sugar measurements to your liking.

7/5/11 @ 3:18 pm (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Seal (message) 1,179 posts, Bumble bee

Mmmmmm. Sweet Tea. I have no amazing recipes to share (the only sweet tea I’ve ever had came from a factory, I’m sure) but I ADORE this idea. It totally fits your reception and is completely awesome and unique. LOVE IT, Sweet Cream

7/5/11 @ 3:25 pm (reply)

14.

Guest

Pittsburgher2

I love the diy idea, but in case you decide to go store bought, the PA liquor control board is currently phasing out several brands of sweet tea vodka meaning they are all on clearance. I know on my last visit, Sweet Carolina Mint Tea Vodka was seriously cheap. IE I totally bought some.

7/5/11 @ 4:43 pm (reply)

15.

Member

helenberrycrunch (message) 3,703 posts, Sugar bee

I cheat and use a coffee maker!!

-put 2-3 family size bags of Luzianne in the basket and brew a FULL pot.

-While that is brewing, I put about a cup and a half of sugar in the bottom of the gallon pitcher.

-Pour the hot tea over the sugar while stirring, and add tap water to fill the pitcher up the rest of the way.

-Refrigerate, of course.

7/5/11 @ 5:20 pm (reply)

16.

Bee

Mrs. Cinnamon Bun (message) 1,100 posts, Bumble bee

We let our guests use whatever they wanted to toast. I felt like if I chose something, there would always be people who didn’t like what I chose. I don’t like champagne because I don’t like drinks with bubbles!

7/5/11 @ 7:20 pm (reply)

17.

Member

Serya (message) 773 posts, Busy bee

I think sweet tea is a great toasting beverage!

My sweet tea recipe:
First off, make simple syrup:
Dissolve 3/4 cup of sugar in 1 1/2 cups hot water.
Remove from heat, allow to cool to room temperature.
Next up, the tea:
Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda in an a large, heat proof pitcher.
Pour 2 cups of boiling water into the pitcher, drop in 6 Luzianne tea bags, cover loosely.
Steep for approximately 15 minutes.
Remove tea bags.
Now, make sweet tea:
Add simple syrup and 4-4.5 cups of cool water to the tea.
Mix completely, refrigerate until cold - then enjoy!

7/5/11 @ 10:03 pm (reply)

18.

Bee

Mrs. Tartlet (message) 3,207 posts, Sugar bee

I lurve Sweet Tea! I didn’t have champagne in my toasting glass at our wedding (not a huge fan unless it’s super sweet), and asked the staff to pour me sparkling apple cider instead. Because they’re so similar in color, I don’t think anyone noticed!

7/5/11 @ 11:55 pm (reply)

19.

Member

weddingstars2012 (message) 430 posts, Helper bee

So I’ve been in SC for 6 years now and I’m slowly starting to drink sweet tea. Sweet tea vodka, on the other hand, I will drink without a second thought! It tastes super good with lemonade too! People down here love to mix sweet tea w/ lemonade, period. Anyway, I’m not a pro at making sweet tea but I see my fiance and his family making it all the time. It’s not complicated, so don’t bother with the complicated recipes. Basically they boil a small pot of water, soak the tea bag in it for a long while (they use Luzianne - specifically the ones made for making large pitchers of tea), pour it in a pitcher, add sugar (sorry I don’t know exactly how much, but you can def play around with it), and then add tap water! But yes, definitely mix the sugar with the hot water so it all gets melted! Then add the tap water.

That’s why “sweet tea” in the north is a fail. When they bring out unsweetened ice tea and give you sugar packets - the sugar never melts! My fiance gets very disappointed up there…haha.

7/6/11 @ 9:42 am (reply)

20.