Sweet Tea Vodka

 Sweet tea was never my thing as I grew up in California in an Indian household where everyone drank hot tea. This is going to sound strange but I first became familiar with sweet tea while watching Chris Hansen's Dateline special, "To Catch a Predator" on NBC. You would think these guys would know they were in trouble as soon as the decoy suggested they help themselves to the sweet tea on the counter while she finished a load of laundry. Some people I guess just never learn. After moving to Chicago, I learned that sweet tea is a huge tradition in the south where it can make for a refreshing beverage on hot days.

And speaking of hot, one of the biggest trends this past summer was sweet tea flavored vodka. The use of tea in cocktails is all the rage with mixologists in general therefore it's no surprise that sweet tea vodka jumped on board the boozy tea bandwagon. 

The two biggest players to emerge in the sweet tea category are Firefly and Jeremiah Weed. Firefly was created by two gentleman from South Carolina and is credited as the first sweet vodka. It became an overnight sensation and other companies soon came out with their own versions, including Jermiah Weed which I had an opportunity to try. When poured straight, it tasted like a thick and somewhat syrupy version of sweet tea, with a slight burn coming from the alcohol (35% ABV). I added a splash of water and good heavens, it tasted exactly like sweetened iced tea. I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the alcoholic and non-alcoholic version. Another suggestion was to mix it with lemonade and have it as a John Daly.