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A mistake had been made. My mother absentmindedly asked for an iced tea at the roadside barbeque joint in rural North Florida. To her chagrin, before she could chase down the waitress and clarify unsweetened tea, a beverage appeared with a glycemic index somewhere between that of a Coca Cola and straight simple syrup.

At 8 years old, I was more than happy to drink the sweetened beverage, the sucrose completely masking any bitterness in the tea that my immature pallet would have rejected. I could see my mom hesitate as she allowed me to drink it, pretty sure the combination of sugar and caffeine would have me trying to climb out of the car windows during the last leg of the long hot drive to Hartford, Alabama. But she relented — it was summertime, after all, and I was about to spend the next three weeks being filled to the brim with sweet tea, biscuits with homemade fig preserves, and heavenly hash. It couldn’t hurt to start the sugar high a few hours early.

Sweet tea has become ubiquitous with hospitality in the American South, but southerners aren’t alone in their taste for the juxtaposition of tannins and sugar. From Senegal to Southeast Asia, people prefer to prepare their tea, whether hot or iced, with a scoop (or more) of sugar. Here is a look at the tradition of sweet tea in the States and further afield.

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