Porch Sitting and Tea Sipping

Front porch sitting and sweet tea sipping go hand in hand in the South. Many important milestones take place on front porches. The front porch provides a romantic backdrop for young couples in love to experience their first kiss while saying goodnight at the door or gazing at the moon sitting side by side on the bench swing. Porches also offer a relaxing venue for whiling away the afternoon with a cold beverage in hand and a ceiling fan whirling overhead. Sweet tea is the norm but lemonade is acceptable as well. Coffee is my beverage of choice for newspaper reading on the porch in the mornings and blueberry mojitos are a good option for a late afternoon cocktail when the sun starts to disappear below the horizon, taking with it the heat of the day. Front porches are ideal for reading a book, having a picnic, or playing cards. Growing up on the inlet in South Carolina, gathering on the porch after dinner, listening to the tree frogs sing their tune and the wind rustle the palmetto trees, is a tradition for my family.

More than one scene in my upcoming release, Sweet Tea Tuesdays, takes place on a front porch on Tradd Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

From Georgia’s porch they observed the seasons change and watched the children grow from toddlers to adolescents to young adults . . . The porch furniture had changed often over the years, from a conglomeration of wicker and rattan love seats and rockers to the now more contemporary metal lounge chairs arranged around a matching coffee table. From October to May, Georgia substituted the coffee table for a round gas fire pit that enabled them to enjoy the porch all year round . . . Back in the day, when their children were little and their husbands were working late, there’d been many times when the tea sipping had led to wine guzzling and they’d ordered four or five large pizzas for dinner for their rowdy little group. They’d spent so much time together in those years they knew everything there was to know about one another. But now that their lives were so busy and independent of one another, most Tuesdays they all had tidbits of news or gossip to share.

My favorite porch time activity is watching storms roll in off the water and listening to the rain ping the metal roof. What’s yours?

I recently conducted a survey of my newsletter subscribers regarding their tastes for tea. I’ve included the results below.

Some of the popular flavored teas listed in the survey . . .

Lemon
Raspberry
Peach
Mango
Earl Grey
Mint
Orange Spice
Ginger Lemon
Passion Tea
Peppermint
Berry

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