Sweet tea

[1][6][7][8][9] Sweet tea is regarded as an important regional staple in the cuisine of the Southern United States and Indonesia.

[10] The availability of sweet tea in restaurants and other establishments is popularly used as an indicator to gauge whether an area can be considered part of the South.

[1][2] Ice was possibly the most valued of the ingredients since it had to be shipped from afar at a time when access to cool drinking water was already a relative luxury.

[2] The oldest known recipe for sweet tea was published in a community cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia (copyright 1878) by Marion Cabell Tyree.

The ready availability of the two ingredients led to development of sweet tea, which remains the most popular beverage in the country.