Summerville, South Carolina: the Birthplace of Sweet Tea and a Legacy of Tea Tourism

sweet tea mural

SUMMERVILLE, SC—A library divulges endless information–not just by the words contained within its books, but by the titles that make up a library’s collection. In South Carolina, the small town of Summerville maintains a quaint downtown library named after local poet Henry Timrod. The library building itself is over 100 years old and sits at the end of an azalea-flanked walkway. Its brick façade welcomes visitors with delicate diagonal muntins in the windows. Inside, collections of books from the 19th and 20th century hint at the topics that have been important to the residents of Summerville for nearly 200 years. 

Few local libraries in America would shelve antique titles like the 1842 The Southern Farmer and Market Gardener, the 1882 The Art of Tea Blending: A Handbook for the Tea Trade, or the 1893 A Text Book on the Chemistry and Agriculture of Tea Including The Growth and Manufacture. But Summerville has a long history, and a good portion of that history relates directly to tea. In one way or another, residents of the town have been researching tea, collecting tea books, or growing tea for over 140 years. 

Now, as the town promotes itself as “the Birthplace of Sweet Tea” and pushes to attract tourists with a Sweet Tea Trail, it is fascinating to understand that tea tourism is nothing new in Summerville. In fact, US presidents have visited the town in the past as tourists themselves. Tea was always part of the draw.

AZALEA festival summerville

Southern Hospitality

Summerville has all the charm a visitor can expect from the South. It is a small town, with lovely residential stretches and a welcoming downtown. Aside from the local shops and restaurants, Summerville stands out for its landscaping. It has its helping of Spanish moss and drooping purple wisteria, but the main attraction is the azalea. Every year, over 200,000 visitors flock to Summerville, also known as Flowertown, for the Azalea Festival. The multi-colored bushes bloom along sidewalks, in front lawns, and throughout the aptly named Azalea Park. 

But the azalea is not the plant that has brought me to Summerville. I have navigated the greater Charleston public transit system, hopping between city bus and regional shuttle, in hopes of learning more about tea–not just any tea, sweet tea. 

I stop by Summerville’s visitor center (they always have freshly brewed sweet tea in a pitcher for their visitors,) where a charming receptionist equips me with half a dozen pamphlets: maps of Summerville, overviews of businesses, and a passport for the Sweet Tea Trail. But this trail is not like other craft beverage trails that have emerged around the country. Instead of getting a new drink at each stop, visitors can go from business to business in search of sweet tea merchandise–drinks, jewelry, clothing, and more. 

In addition to the trail, Summerville has a massive sculpture of a mason jar full of sweet tea. The sculpture is a photo-op today, but it commemorates the town’s successful bid for a world record–2,524 gallons of sweet tea brewed on National Iced Tea Day in 2016. They also hold a sweet tea festival in September each year where local mixologists compete in making sweet tea cocktails. 

As I walk around the town, getting a sense for its local pride, I sip on a sweet tea. On a sunny spring day, it is nice to imagine that I am enjoying sweet tea in its birthplace. Perhaps, I am. 

Summerville South Carolina History

A Sweet Tea History

Sweet tea is adoringly called “the Table Wine of the South,” but it hasn’t always been a staple. 

For starters, tea and sugar have never been strangers in European countries. Grocers in America sold salt, sugar, coffee, and tea in the same breath. Hot tea with sugar was normal. The key to sweet tea as we know it today is the ice. 

In Taste the State: South Carolina’s Signature Foods, Recipes & Their Stories, Kevin Mitchell and David Shields detail the history of sweet tea. They suggest that iced tea was popular in the North prior to the South, where it arrived in 1868. But this date seems a bit late. A Louisiana paper re-published the words of the Saturday Evening Post in 1857, “Ours is the voice that sounded the praises of iced tea….and we suppose it will be a century before the public find out what luxuries iced tea and coffee are in the summer solstice.” (Southern Sentinel, 19 Sept. 1857) 

It did take over a century for sweet tea to reach the heights that it has today, but iced tea was not uncommon at the end of the 19th century. Mitchell and Shields consider 1874, “the breakout year for iced tea in the South,” when the straw was decided upon as the preferred method of drinking the beverage. 

However, the earliest iced teas would have been made with green tea. A 1901 interview with the Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson, indicates that the American palette still preferred the hard-to-produce green tea. The Secretary said, “In the future, special attention will be given to the manufacture of pure green tea. This subject is now claiming the attention of both inventors and planters, as they begin to realize the hopelessness of bringing the American tea drinkers to using the black tea instead of the green.” 

When Americans finally did switch over to black tea, in all likelihood, the increased bitterness of black tea merited more sugar. Shields and Mitchell argue that the term “sweet tea,” meaning iced black tea with sugar, didn’t arise until the 1930s when it was used in Georgia and Louisiana. Only in the 1970s did “sweet tea” become a popular term for the South’s favorite beverage. This marked the beginning of the rise of Snapple and the golden age of Southern sweet tea culture. 

sweet tea in the south

American Grown Tea

South Carolina has a near monopoly on the history of tea cultivation in America. Early forays into growing tea occurred at Middleton Batony on the Ashley River near Charleston around 1800, and then again in 1848 at Greenville, South Carolina under the direction of Dr. Junius Smith. (The Intelligencer, 09 July 1915) Georgia and Texas both made brief attempts at growing tea, but none ever matched those of the Palmetto State. One town in particular stands out in the American history of tea farming, that is Summerville, South Carolina. 

At the turn of the 20th century, the small town of Summerville was famous for its air. Tourists came from around the United States to breathe in the scent of pine and rest at a number of wellness resorts. The Pinehurst Inn was the most famous among them. While they came for the air, tea would become a key attraction. 

In 1880, the United States Department of Agriculture leased 20 acres of land in Summerville where they experimented with tea cultivation until they gave up in 1887. At that time, Dr. Charles Shephard bought land in the town for a similar purpose. He founded Pinehurst Tea Farm in hopes of promoting American grown tea. Where the USDA had failed, Dr. Shephard was largely successful. He was the son of a mineralogist and noted meteorite collector, and was himself an expert in fertilizers based on phosphate. He brought in tea plants from China, India, and Japan and began to grow tea in South Carolina.

The Pinehurst Tea Farm proved to be a success. In 1899, the USDA appointed Shepherd “Special Agent in Charge of Tea Investigations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” The following year, Congress awarded his project $1700 in funding. (Kwist)

But Shephard faced some key challenges in bringing American grown tea to market. For starters, labor in America was far more expensive than in tea-producing countries like India and China. Shephard attempted to remedy this issue by building a free school on his tea farm for African-American children. The children would receive an education in literacy while learning to pick tea and making a bit of money. 

While young children were picking delicate tea leaves, Shephard also struggled to produce green tea. Producing green tea artisanally requires a highly skilled method of processing called hand rolling. Once again, the cost of labor and the lack of expertise in hand rolling in America presented challenges to the Tea Farm. To fix the problem, Shephard spent a considerable amount of money on “The Little Giant,” a machine designed to replace hand rolling in green tea manufacture. The contraption was designed by the brother of Mr. J. Jackson, who had run the USDA Summerville tea experiment in 1880. 

In spite of the challenges, Shephard managed to bring American-grown tea to market during his lifetime. He sold his tea under the slogan “From Bush to Cup, Quality, Purity, and Economy.” At its height, the Tea Farm was producing around 15,000 pounds of tea a year. (Foster)

Shephard wanted to push tea in different directions, American directions. Knowing that he couldn’t compete with the mass-market, mass-produced tea imported from India and China, he focused on premium products. He only harvested the finest, youngest leaves, instead of the harsher, more plentiful leaves. He also sold 10 cent boxes of 20 tea tablets–an early example of the “Just add water” concept. (The Herald and News, 09 Jan 1906) In both growing and processing tea, Shephard took an American approach. 

World's Largest Sweet Tea Summerville, SC

Tea Tourism History in Summerville

More than a commercial tea success, Shephard’s Tea Farm at Pinehurst was a tourist attraction. The project garnered national attention around 1900 as Congress debated removing a tariff on tea imports; one South Carolina representative wanted to keep the protection for the country’s only domestic tea farm. Slowly, it became known that Summerville, South Carolina had something of a novelty in its Tea Farm.  

According to a 1915 newspaper, Shephard’s operation ”is known far and wide, and for the last several years has been a magnet for thousands of summer and winter tourists, who would not think of visiting this section without paying a visit to the tea farm.” (The Watchman and Southern, July 10, 1915.)

Tourist materials from 1915 advertise tea as the main attraction, “To taste a cup of Pinehurst Tea prepared under the direction of the genial host is alone worth a trip to Summerville.” (Kwist) Each Wednesday, during the tourist season, the Tea Farm gave talks educating on tea and providing free samples. President Theodore Roosevelt even visited the farm. 

After Shephard’s death in 1915, tea would go quiet in Summerville’s history. An obituary honored his contribution: “When Dr. Charles Upham Shephard died Sunday night at his Summerville home, there passed away the man to whom Charleston and South Carolina are indebted more than any other for founding and promoting the only successful tea farm in the United States.” (The Watchman and Southern, July 10, 1915.)

The tea farm was abandoned and the tea was left to grow wild until some of the original plants were moved to Wadmalaw Island in 1963. Today, the Charleston Tea Plantation at Wadmalaw still follows in Shephard’s steps, producing an American-grown tea, and providing a touristic excursion to a tea farm for those visiting Charleston. Still, some of the original tea plants from Shephard’s tea farm may be growing on residential property around Summerville. 

While Summerville no longer grows tea commercially, the town has an interest in reviving tea tourism in new ways.

Birthplace of Sweet Tea History

The Birthplace of Sweet Tea

The town of Summerville now has the federal trademark for “The Birthplace of Sweet Tea.” They believe that a Civil War Reunion event that occurred in Summerville is the earliest definitive mention of the sweet tea beverage. The event called for tea, sugar, and ice. While the historical accuracy of the claim could be debated, there is nothing wrong with the sentiment. Since 1880, this small town has been at the center of the American effort to grow tea, and tea has also consistently been part of tourism in Summerville. 

On top of this, it is likely that the tea that grew in Summerville would have been drunk with ice and sugar. In an 1894 interview with reporter Rakso Leicia, Dr. Shephard himself said, “My tea also holds out better in strength and is especially adapted for iced tea.” (The Anderson Intelligencer,  07 Nov. 1894) 

The kitschy Americana of the giant sweet tea mason jar in downtown Summerville belies the deep heritage that the town feels towards tea. In a different era, wellness tourists took the train from Charleston to rest in Summerville and walk the tea gardens. Today, a 20 minute drive can land a visitor in the town surrounded by sweet tea activities and southern charm.

Summerville does not have a monopoly on sweet tea, but therein lies the difficulty. Sweet tea is a regional phenomenon without one epicenter. Given Summerville’s unique tea-growing history, why shouldn’t it be the South’s mecca of sweet tea? 

South Carolina Swamp

Sources Cited:

The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.), 07 Nov. 1894. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026965/1894-11-07/ed-1/seq-1/>

The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.), 23 Jan. 1901. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026965/1901-01-23/ed-1/seq-4/>

The Art of Tea Blending: A Handbook for the Tea Trade, Third Edition, London: W.B. Whittingham & Co, 1882. 

Bamber, M Kelway, A Text Book on the Chemistry and Agriculture of Tea Including The Growth and Manufacture, Calcutta: Law Publishing Press, 1893.

Foster, Clarice and Lang (eds.). Beth’s Pineland Village. The Summerville Preservation Society, 1988. R.L. Bryan Company, Columbia, SC.

The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.), 09 Jan. 1906. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063758/1906-01-09/ed-1/seq-1/>

The intelligencer. (Anderson, S.C.), 09 July 1915. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010218505/1915-07-09/ed-1/seq-4/>

Kwist, Margaret Scott. Porch Rocker Recollections of Summerville, South Carolina. Linwood Press, Inc., Summerville, SC, 1980.

Mitchell, Kevin, and David S. Shields. Taste the State: South Carolina’s Signature Foods, Recipes & Their Stories. Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press, 2014.

Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]), 19 Sept. 1857. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064476/1857-09-19/ed-1/seq-1/>

The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.), 10 July 1915. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93067846/1915-07-10/ed-1/seq-5/>

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