Tea (sweet?)

My grandmother is a retired school teacher. Correction-- retired twice school-teacher. One of those elementary teachers that was really good-- just ask any parent of any kid she ever taught. And an organizational freak- everything has its place, and every place has a proper label.

More than two decades ago, I noted to my grandmother (this was at Thanksgiving or Christmas, I'm sure) that calling tea "unsweetened" didn't seem right to me, because "un" seemed to imply that the sweetness had somehow been removed from the tea. And how once you add sugar to tea (well, the warm kind anyway) it would be near impossible to remove it.

Every time since that I've been to her house for family gatherings, I note two pitchers of tea available: "Sweet" and "Non-Sweet". I'm sure I've overheard her explaining to someone who had asked about the labels that non-sweetened tea hasn't ever had sugar added to it.

I don't know if she knew I was listening and yanking my chain, or if I converted her. But I like to think she's a believer in non-sweet tea.