As I sat eating my breakfast on the deck early in the morning, I could feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders. I knew by the increasing heat on my skin that it was going to be a scorcher of a summer day. Because I am partially blind, I couldn't see them but I could hear the hum of hummingbird wings as they flew past my head. The hummingbirds were at work slurping up their breakfast of sweet nectar from the flowers and the mix of sugar water that I kept in their feeders.
Hummers are fascinating creatures. I read in a paper by Stephanie Bitner, a biologist at Arizona State University School of Life sciences, that hummingbirds lick nectar up from a flower, like a dog lapping at a bowl of water. Bitner goes on to state that a hummingbird's tongue can lick sixteen times per second, and they will consume one half of their body weight in sugar each day and that they eat an average once every ten minutes."Hummingbirds Foraging May 2014." Hummingbirds love the sweet sugar found in nectar and sugar water. Did you ever suck the nectar out of a honeysuckle flower? As a child, I found its sweetness delicious.
Sugar water and nectar bring to mind sweet tea in the South. My North Carolina neighbors have a unique blend of iced tea that they call sweet tea. This is not just iced tea with sugar in it like I drank growing up in New Jersey. Sweet tea is much more than that. Sweet tea is a heavenly drink that will rival the nectar from the most generous of flowers.
But before I tell you about sweet tea, let's talk about tea itself for a moment. Although initially served hot, 85 percent of all tea consumed in the United States today is enjoyed cold. Whether you like your drink with a splash of liquor, poured into punches, or served simply on the rocks, you're taking part in a 200-year-old tradition. Hot tea has been served in America since Colonial times. But our tea-drinking habits really started to shift around the turn of the 20th century. At the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, the hot summer weather caused fairgoers to skip hot beverages in favor of cold ones — including iced tea. The fair's 20 million visitors cooled themselves with iced tea and brought the new style of tea back to their homes throughout the United States and the world.
Later, when home refrigerators with freezers started to appear in homes during the 1920s and '30s, people didn't even have to leave the house to grab a couple of ice cubes year-round. This development made iced tea convenient, and drinking iced tea was less expensive than other options that were available at the time. (adapted from Taken from "The History of iced tea April 30,2018")
North Carolina, sweet tea is made by adding a five-pound bag of sugar to one cup of boiling water. This mixture is then added to a pitcher of freshly brewed tea. You finish it off by throwing in a ten-pound bag of ice, Do this, and you have an ice-cold sweet drink that is a refreshing treat on a blazing hot Carolina summer day. Add to your enjoyment and pull a chair or a rocker under a shady oak tree. Grab a good book and a really big glass of that sweet tea. Relax and forget your troubles for a time.
One warning l feel I should add. If you are planning to wear a bikini, tankini, one-piece, or two-piece bathing suit to the beach, although tempting in the summer heat, don't be a hummingbird and drink one half your body weight in sweet tea and do not eat every ten minutes. True story. This is the sweet secret of sweet tea in North Carolina and perhaps beyond.
During this season of COVID 19, election politics and shutdowns, Summer sun, hummingbirds, and sweet tea reminds me of this one thing.
I know that God is in control and God has got us! So sit back and relax.
Matthew 6:27 Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
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