One of the best parts of my day job of editing a small city magazine is that I get to read so many other magazines for inspiration. I especially enjoy finding magazines from other cities and states, and one of my favorites is Our State: Down Home in North Carolina. The August 2010 issue is no doubt my recent favorite, and I hope they get an award for that wonderful cover! Those Mason jars of sweet tea are just incredibly inviting, and I know from experience that styling a food photo like that is not easy. Ice melts. Bugs land. Lemons shrivel. And yet they pulled it off just beautifully.Every few years or so, I seem to come across in a southern magazine a particularly fine essay on the virtues of a well-made glass of sweet tea, which in the South means iced sweet tea. This essay, by Tommy Tomlinson, is one of the best ever. Here are a few of my favorite lines from his piece:
• "This tea is the color of a baseball glove, but clear enough to see through."
• "... at its most basic, sweet tea is a cold blast on a hot day, like a dip in a river from the inside out."
• "What we're talking about, when we talk about sweet tea, is something brewed that morning, stirred by hand, served by a waitress who calls you darlin', poured out of one of those special pitchers with the spout on the side, or better yet, sitting in the fridge at your mama's house."
Doesn't that just make you want to go pour yourself a big glass of sweet tea? If you can't get homemade, the word around here is that the best sweet tea comes from Chick-fil-A (for drive-through dining) and Golden's restaurant in downtown Newnan (a cafeteria). My favorite sweet tea, however, is made by ... me! If you're a sweet tea fan, not just from the South but anywhere, I'd love to hear who *you* think makes the best sweet tea!
Love this cover! A glass of sweet tea on a hot day is just great. Have a great day, Joanie
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun review, angela! I know where the worst sweet tea comes from, and it is a tourist spot here in town that makes the tea from a mix rather than brewing it. I agree that Chick-fil-a has good sweet tea. But my favorite is the tea we brew at home.
ReplyDeleteHi Angela! I love sweet tea! My favorite! And I'm now a follower of your blog! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful cover!! That is the perfect color for tea!!! (But I would never make it as a southern belle, because I like my tea without the sugar. I only add lemon. )
ReplyDeleteThat is a nice cover photo and it does make you want to reach for a tall glass of sweet tea.
ReplyDeleteAnother state mag I like is Florida Travel and Life, probably because we go there a couple of times a year.
Loved reading this post! I love my Sweet Tea Cold, like Mama's refrigerator, the ice doesn't water it down.lol My family Has to have Iced Sweet Tea. I love Chick-fil-a too!
ReplyDeleteNorth Carolina is one of my favorite states for a travel destination, but I'm not familiar with this magazine. What a great photo! Our #1 daughter introduced me to Chick-fil-a sweet tea. I like their's half and half with lemonade. My Aunt Ida was the sweet tea queen in our family.
ReplyDeleteI agree this cover makes me want a glass of iced tea right now, and I have a 5 gallon jug in the fridge ready to go!
ReplyDeleteI also agree on the two aforementioned as the best places for tea to go. I do favor Golden's, but not by much.
I've never had Chick-fil-a tea before, but they have good lemonade. Do you have Bojangles in GA? They have good sweet tea for a restaurant. Like you I think my sweet tea is the best. I even make it with Splenda and people can't tell it doesn't contain sugar.
ReplyDeleteI will pass on the sweet tea, but love the photo. They did a great job.
ReplyDeleteI just saw this post now, but in my opinion, the best sweet tea is made from teabags that have been steeping in room temperature water for at least 6 or more hours. I always did like McDonalds sweet tea when we lived in TN.
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