Something has gone drastically wrong. I can’t pinpoint the exact time, place, or the origin, but things are not right. When it comes to iced tea, that is.

I’m a born and raised Southerner. I am proud of that, despite the bad publicity and negative media of late. All the cooks in my family were Southerners as well. Great cooks. They knew their stuff. And no one wore a white hood in the kitchen. Ever.

So here’s my gripe: When did this differentiation of iced tea become so common?  To any Southerner of a particular age, the term “sweet tea” is redundant. Iced tea, by its very nature, is sweet.  There was no such thing as “unsweet” tea at any of the tables where I, as a child, was blessed to share meals.  Even the most simple iced tea recipes start with two ingredients: water and sugar.

My maternal grandmother made the best tea in the entire South. I’ve never tasted anything that even came close to it. Maybe it had to do with the clear, fresh mountain spring water she used. Or the fact that she worked with loose tea, not bags. It could have been that scant little smidge of baking soda she added to “take out the bitter.”  Of course, for the best iced tea outcome, one must start by making a simple syrup – melting the sugar into the water before you add the tea to steep.  The finished product has to be strong and dark because it will be diluted with water (to taste) and the ice will do the same. It needs to taste like tea, not sweet brown water.  God forbid, DO NOT refrigerate or chill the tea before serving. Not the leftovers either. Chilling tea will make it cloudy and the flavor will be off. Trust me, just don’t.

About the time I was in my early teens, I began to notice something odd when we went to restaurants and someone ordered iced tea. The server would respond “sweet or unsweet?” Although I didn’t have the words to express my reaction at that time, I’m sure I was thinking something along the lines of WTF?  To start with, being a word nerd, I was offended by the incorrect grammar. “Unsweet” isn’t even a word.  “Unsweetened”, yes.  And what is “unsweet tea” anyway? Why not just order water with lemon? It’s basically the same thing.

Today “sweet or unsweet” is ubiquitous.  I understand that people are watching their calorie intake, monitoring their blood sugar, any number of things. I cannot hold that against them. But I must confess when I see someone stirring packets of dry artificial sweetener into their glass, watching the undissolved powder floating around or settling at the bottom of the glass, it grosses me out.  I miss the days when tea was tea.

Don’t get me started on overly sweet cornbread, either. We call that cake where I grew up. Sure, a tablespoon or so in your batter makes for an interesting consistency – it adds a crumbly flakiness. But if you are serving the bread with savory dishes – white beans, greens, fried chicken – the last thing you want to bite into is something that needs to be frosted. It’s an assault on the Southern palate. And forget about crumbling it into a glass and covering it with buttermilk. Cakebread simply doesn’t work.

Yes, I am particular, especially when it comes to preserving our Southern heritage – which to me means food, manners, and a certain fashion sense. The South is a big place, and tastes vary from region to region, so I hope I haven’t offended any of my fellow Southerners. I realize that everyone has a right to their own preferences, but when I order tea, I mean real tea.  If you have to cut out sugar, do it somewhere else.  Don’t eat the cornbread.