Sweet Tea & Sunshine Wreath Tutorial

Sweet Tea and Southern Sunshine!

Were you raised on sweet tea and sunshine? If you’re from the South like me, chances are you were! 😊

I recently made this wreath for a friend who simply cannot live without her sweet tea. And no, I’m not talking about unsweetened tea or anything with artificial sweeteners—it has to be the real deal, made with sugar… lots of sugar! 🍋🍯

This is the tea we all grew up on—the kind brewed fresh for every meal, still warm when poured over a glass of ice. In my house, leftovers weren’t a thing. With a family of six, we probably finished off a whole pitcher at every meal!

Wreath Tutorial

If you would like to see how I made the wreath, just watch the video. The exact supplies I used are no longer available, but there are many similar products at Trendy Tree that you can substitute!

Brewing the Perfect Iced Tea

Back in the day, we made iced tea with Lipton’s orange pekoe loose tea leaves. Over the years, we upgraded to tea bags—first the small ones, then the family-sized versions. With each step, making tea became even easier!

When I first learned to brew tea, I was taught to start with a small saucepan filled with cold water and loose tea leaves—about ¼ cup, though we never really measured. The key was to bring the tea just to a boil, then immediately take it off the heat to steep. Letting it boil too long or boil over was a disaster waiting to happen—tea leaves everywhere!

Once the tea was ready, it had to be strained. We had a special pitcher reserved just for sweet tea. About a cup of sugar went into the pitcher first, then the warm tea was poured over it, carefully using a strainer to catch as many leaves as possible (though a few always managed to sneak through). A quick stir to dissolve the sugar, followed by cold water to fill the pitcher, and just like that—you had the perfect refreshing iced tea!

The tea was still a little warm when it was poured over ice, melting just enough to balance the flavors perfectly. If you needed a bigger batch—maybe for a backyard dinner or a church gathering—it was made in a one- or two-gallon jug. We used those classic glass gallon jugs with screw-on mason jar tops, the kind that always seemed to hold the best sweet tea.

Tea Ball

No, we’re not switching gears to talk about tee-ball! 😉 We had a metal tea ball—a handy little gadget that made brewing tea much easier. It came apart in two halves, allowing you to fill it with loose tea leaves before screwing it back together. A small chain let you hang it on the side of the pan while the tea steeped.

Using a tea ball meant no more juggling a strainer while pouring hot tea. Just drop it in, bring the water to a boil, and let it do its job. Simple, mess-free, and a total game-changer!

The tiny holes in the metal allowed water to circulate through the tea leaves, ensuring a full-bodied brew with far less mess to clean up. This tea ball had been in our family for years—passed down from my mother or grandmother. The chain that once made it easy to hang over the side of the pot had been lost long ago, but the tea ball itself remained a beloved kitchen staple. I suppose it could have been used for steeping spices, but in our house, it had one purpose only—brewing the perfect tea.

I grew up on sweet tea and sunshine! All my friends and family drank the same sweet liquid. We lived on a farm and if you wanted anything to drink with your breakfast or lunch (dinner as we called it), it would be sweet tea.

A fresh pitcher of sweet tea at supper was a given—no need to ask, it was just always there. Even though we had a dairy barn, we kids weren’t too keen on drinking milk. Maybe it had something to do with working with the cows and knowing exactly where it came from. Who knows?

We had friends who would drink warm milk straight from the barn—just the thought of it makes me gag! But hey, to each their own. As for us, we stuck with our sweet tea, ice-cold.

Coffee, Kool-Aid, and Surprisingly Good Teeth

As strange as it may seem for kids who grew up on a farm, none of the four of us ever drank coffee—and we still don’t! It’s odd, considering both of our parents were coffee drinkers.

My mom could drink coffee any time of day, whether it was the dead of winter or the heat of summer. My dad, on the other hand, was strictly a breakfast coffee drinker, but he had one rule—it had to be boiling hot. And I do mean boiling. When Mr. Coffee machines first came out, he complained that they didn’t make coffee hot enough. He eventually adjusted, but before he passed, when he was living alone, he went back to making his coffee the old-fashioned way—in a percolator or right on the stove. No fancy coffee makers for him—just scalding hot coffee, the way he liked it.

The only time I ever got a taste of coffee was in red-eye gravy, where a little bit of coffee was poured into bacon grease. We’d spoon that thin gravy over biscuits, and that was the extent of my coffee-drinking experience!

Now, if we weren’t drinking sweet tea, we did get the occasional treat—Kool-Aid. Orange juice was too expensive, so Kool-Aid it was, usually in flavors like grape, cherry, orange, or strawberry. None of that green stuff and they didn’t even have any of the blues back then! My grandmother always had a few packs in her kitchen, and of course, it was sweetened with real sugar.

And despite all that sweet tea and Kool-Aid? Surprisingly, we’ve all had pretty good teeth! Go figure.

Hot Tea? A Whole New World

I guess you could say we led a pretty sheltered life growing up. It wasn’t until high school—or maybe even my first year of college—that I realized people drank tea differently than we did!

One evening, I was having supper at a friend’s house when they asked what I wanted to drink. Naturally, I said, “Tea.” They told me it was already on the table.

But I didn’t see it. No pitcher of sweet tea. No glasses filled with ice. I glanced around, confused, until I finally asked, “Where?”

My friend pointed to this tiny little white container sitting in the middle of the table—smaller than a sugar bowl! To this day, I have no idea if it was instant tea, some kind of concentrated liquid, or what.

Not wanting to reveal my complete lack of tea knowledge outside my own family, I quickly covered up my confusion and said, “You know what? I think I’ll just have water.” Meanwhile, my friend was drinking milk with supper. Strange people, indeed.

Tea of Convenience

We still have tea with our lunch and dinner, though not usually at breakfast. But I’ll admit—we’ve fallen into the habit of picking up a gallon of tea at the grocery store. I know, I know… the thought of all that plastic piling up in landfills bothers me, too. But here we are.

The convenience is hard to beat, and honestly, the tea is brewed well and tastes great! My favorite is the Walmart brand, but since COVID, it’s been tough to find. These days, we usually go with Milo’s.

If you were raised on sweet tea and sunshine, I’m sure you can relate! I’d love to hear about your childhood memories—what was your family’s beverage of choice?

More from my Blog