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Sweet Tea Julep

July 22, 2012 by The Runaway Spoon 4 Comments

It is hot out there!  It’s hot every summer in the South, but it still seems to be one of our favorite topics of conversation.  And we always talk as if it is some sort of surprise. “Can you believe how hot it is?  It might hit 105° today!” But somehow we manage.  Our homes are air-conditioned, our porches have fans, and our clothes are made of seersucker and light linen.  We love a good cold meal, like tomato sandwiches, pimento cheese and cold wedge of watermelon.

Our primary tool for keeping our cool is endless pitchers of cold sweet tea, and after five o’clock, icy mint juleps, served in chilled silver cups, cool to the touch with a bracing drip of cold condensation.  Tea is refreshing, bourbon is revivifying.  Combine the two in a minty punch and you’ll have a whole new outlook on life. Try it in a julep cup, but a plastic cup is just fine.  You may not even mind the heat!

Sweet Tea Julep

7 cups water, divided

2 cups sugar

1 cup loosely packed mint leaves (plus more for garnish)

3 family-sized black tea bags

1 ½  cups bourbon

Stir together 4 cups of water and the sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from the heat and add the mint leaves and tea bags.  Leave to steep for 10 minutes, then remove the tea bags.  Leave the mint leaves in while the mixture cools to room temperature.

Strain the tea into a pitcher. Stir in 3 cups of water and the bourbon. Chill, then serve over lots of ice, garnished with mint sprigs.

Makes about 9 cups

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Filed Under: Breakfast And Brunch, Southern Specialties Tagged With: bourbon, Drinks, mint, Southern specialties, sweet tea, tea

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Donya Mullins says

    July 24, 2012 at 8:32 am

    Tea and bourbon – what a great combination! The best thing is I have everything to make this drink in the house….it’s on the menu tonight.

  2. Kathleen Dunn says

    May 13, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    Loved this recipe but next time I will cut sugar in half.

Trackbacks

  1. Sweet Tea Cookies « The Runaway Spoon says:
    September 9, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    […] with that tooth-achingly sweet depth.  I love to transform those flavors into many forms, from bourbon punches to sorbet to these cookies.  They are redolent with those iconic flavors. The texture of these […]

  2. Grilled Sweet Tea Glazed Pork Chops « The Runaway Spoon says:
    May 19, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    […] fire up the grill and brew up a pitcher (or maybe some bourbon-laced Sweet Tea Juleps) and celebrate summer Southern […]

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I'm P.C. I think I am like most people. Somewhere in the middle between food snob and food schlub. Just being in the kitchen makes me happy. I live, mostly in my kitchen, in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

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