The Drinks of the South

Southerners take their food seriously, but what’s in the glass matters almost as much. From a front porch in July to a tailgate or a wedding reception, somebody is going to hand you something to drink.

The drinks below show up over and over in Southern life, some every day, some saved for celebrations, and a couple with enough kick to require a designated driver. Knowing what they are and when to serve them is part of being a good host or a good guest.

Sweet tea

Sweet tea is the everyday drink of the South, served at lunch, supper, and pretty much any time someone walks in the door. It’s strong black tea, sweetened while it’s still hot so the sugar dissolves completely, then poured over ice. Some folks add lemon, some don’t.

The earliest known recipe for sweet iced tea appears in Marion Cabell Tyree’s 1879 cookbook Housekeeping in Old Virginia, which called for green tea rather than the black tea most of us use today. Sweet tea became widely associated with the South in the early twentieth century, when both ice and sugar were easier to come by.

If you order tea at a restaurant in the South without specifying, you’ll likely get it sweet. That’s not a regional joke; that’s just our default go-to.

Sweet Tea Southern Style

20 minutes

A Southern staple, sweet tea is the perfect refreshing drink to have on hand every day.

Lemonade

Lemonade isn’t strictly Southern, but the South claims it the way we claim cornbread. Fresh-squeezed lemons, sugar, cold water, plenty of ice, and a sprig of mint if you’re feeling fancy.

It’s the drink kids set up stands to sell on the side of the road, and it’s what gets served at church functions and bridal showers when the bride doesn’t drink. A pitcher of lemonade and a pitcher of sweet tea on the same table is one of the most reliable signs you’re at a Southern gathering.

Some treats to go with your lemonade

Lemon Icebox Pie Recipe

4 hours 30 minutes

Easy Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

2 hours

Easy Lemon Bars

1 hour 20 minutes

Lemon Blackberry Pound Cake

1 hour 15 minutes

Arnold Palmer

Half iced tea, half lemonade. The drink is named for the golfer Arnold Palmer, who ordered it so often at clubhouses that it eventually took his name. He was from Pennsylvania, but the drink belongs to the South in spirit. We were already drinking tea and lemonade by the gallon, and combining them just made sense.

If you want it spiked, a shot of vodka turns it into what some folks call a John Daly, after another golfer with very different habits.

Sherbet punch

This is the punch at every Southern wedding shower, baby shower, and church social you’ll ever go to. The basic formula is a couple of bottles of ginger ale, or Sprite, poured over a half-gallon of sherbet, with pineapple juice sometimes added for body.

Rainbow sherbet gives you the pretty pink color that everyone associates with baby and bridal showers. Sherbet punch is not fancy, and nobody pretends it is. It’s punch, it’s cold, and there’s a ladle in it. That’s all you need.

Chatham Artillery Punch

Named for the Chatham Artillery, a militia unit founded in Savannah, Georgia, in 1786, this is one of the most famous and most dangerous punches in American history. The recipe varies, but it is generally a combination of rum, brandy, and bourbon or rye, with green tea, lemon juice, and brown sugar, topped with champagne right before serving.

The drink tastes mild, which is exactly the trap. It has been credited, fairly or not, with knocking out plenty of unsuspecting guests at Savannah functions over the years.

Planter’s Punch

Planter’s Punch is rum-based and Caribbean in origin, but it became a fixture in coastal Southern cities, especially Charleston, where ties to the rum trade go back centuries. The classic rhyme for it is “one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak,” meaning lemon or lime juice, sugar or syrup, rum, and water or ice.

Most versions also get a splash of grenadine and a dash of bitters. You’ll see it on menus all along the Lowcountry coast in the summer, often garnished with an orange slice and a cherry.

Mint julep

Bourbon, sugar, fresh mint, and crushed ice in a chilled silver or pewter cup. The mint julep is most famous as the official drink of the Kentucky Derby, where it has been served since 1938, but it predates the Derby by a long stretch.

Early juleps were considered medicinal and sometimes used brandy or rum instead of bourbon. The technique matters with this one. Muddle the mint gently, just enough to release the oil, and pack the cup tight with finely crushed ice so the outside frosts up.

Jack and Coke

Two of the most iconic Southern brands in one glass. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey, distilled in Lynchburg since the 1860s, is poured over ice and topped with Coca-Cola, invented in Atlanta in 1886.

It’s the unofficial drink of country concerts, backyard cookouts, and a thousand honky-tonks between Nashville and Texarkana. You can dress it up with a squeeze of lime, but most folks don’t bother.

Coca-Cola, and why every soda is a Coke

Coca-Cola was invented by John Pemberton in Atlanta in 1886, and Atlanta has been the company’s headquarters ever since. The Southern attachment to Coke runs deep enough that, in much of the region, “Coke” is the generic word for any soft drink. A waitress will ask what kind of Coke you want, and the answer might be Sprite, Dr. Pepper, root beer, or an actual Coca-Cola.

Linguists call this a genericized trademark. Down here, we just call it ordering. If you say “Coke,” you might get anything. And if you say “pop,” you just might get popped.

Pour something and call your people over

You don’t have to keep every one of these on hand, but knowing them helps you host. Sweet tea and lemonade cover most everyday gatherings, sherbet punch handles the showers, and the cocktails come out when there’s something to celebrate. And there’s almost always a Coke in the fridge.