Summerville Journal Scene
Written by: Monica Kreber
Rain did not stop National Iced Tea Day from being sweet to
Summerville residents.
Summerville is considered the birthplace of sweet tea, so it is
only fitting that it have the world’s largest cup of sweet tea.
On June 10 the town did just that, and now Summerville holds a
Guinness Book of World Records title for the world’s largest sweet tea. The
town put on the event as a way to celebrate National Iced Tea Day.
A giant mason jar – named Mason – was filled with 1,425 gallons
of ice cold sweet tea to serve to the community. A total of 120 pounds of tea
from Charleston Tea Plantation were used to concoct the brew. To sweeten it,
1,600 pounds of sugar from Dixie Crystals were added, and 3,000 pounds of ice
was used to chill it. The tea was heated to 180 degrees and then cooled to not
exceed more than 42 degrees – which was required in order to still be
considered iced tea.
Tiffany Norton, events and media coordinator and PIO for the
town, has been organizing the event since the beginning of the year.
Multiple people reported the tea was very sweet – but good.
“It’s a sweet as Summerville,” Norton said.
The town started early with the event, with officials from
SCE&G Natural Gas outside of Town Hall at 7 a.m., brewing up the tea to
pump into Mason. The event also had a lot of local support from Scout Boats and
KION North America.
Norton said brewing the tea took the longest – it took 36
minutes to brew 50 gallons of tea to be pumped into Mason.
Norton feels the community interaction has been the best part.
“This event is so much bigger than any one person,” she said.
The actual event was not supposed to start until 5 p.m. but
Norton said thousands of folks showed up before 3 p.m., wanting to see Mason
and hear whether or not Summerville was going to go down in history.
“I think people are just so excited to be a part of something,
to be a part of the history,” she said.
The town had 3,500 souvenir mason jars available to purchase at
$5 each – a jar was needed to take a drink from Mason. Despite the rain, folks
huddled under umbrellas in a line that stretched all the way down past
Summerville CPW.
The town made the announcement that it had made the world record
just before 3 p.m. Town officials clinked their mason jars together, with Mayor
Bill Collins saying the achievement is something the town should be proud of.
A Chick-fil-A in Broken Arrow, Okla. previously held the title
for the world’s largest iced tea. Its cup was nine feet tall and held more than
1,140 gallons. Mayor Bill Collins said Chick-fil-A held the title for five
years.
“We had tremendous, tremendous community support, and from the
business community, to make this event possible,” he said.
