Welcome To The Sweet Tea Coast
A little sip of heaven beckons.
 There's nothing on God's green earth more soothing, comforting or refreshing than sweet tea. That's iced tea sweetened either before, during or directly after brewing, while it's receptively hot, before being poured over mountains of ice in a big ol' glass.
Not, I repeat not, that dark, bitter stuff served up North and sweetened, if at all, after it's already frigid enough to hurt your teeth.
You might even say that "sweetea," as we drawl it down South, isn't so much a beverage as a state of mind. Sure, you can find it in some soul food and barbecue joints in Chicago, even in most restaurants in Calgary, Alberta. But in places like that it's just a beverage served with lunch or dinner - not a revered social icon as it is in the South.
Hence, the "Sweet Tea Coast" - that long slice of heaven winding its way from the shores of the Chesapeake in Virginia, down along the North Carolina barrier islands, the South Carolina Low Country, Eastern Georgia, and the part of Eastern Florida that sits above the second Mason-Dixon Line. (What's that? Well, if you've ever lived or visited south of Palm Coast in Florida, you know that below that point you have suddenly "gone North" again. So we cannot, in good conscience, call that the South.)
Sweet tea is everywhere on the coast. It's found in the occasional bourbon and sweet tea at sunset overlooking the Marshes of Glynn near St. Simons Island, Georgia; next to a plate of Lowcountry boil or chicken bog along the South Carolina coast; smack dab in the middle of a historic Florida city.
It's Spanish moss, moonlit walks along a sandy lane, and finally making birdie on that challenging coastal golf course. But it's also an intimate dinner party with your new neighbors, finding that special antique store in a quaint coastal village and allowing the soft ocean breezes to relax you and make you feel at home.
That's why property values have risen along the coast. Sure, there is a huge boom in the age bracket nearing retirement - finally getting a chance to enjoy a lifestyle of Golf Cart Residential Community, gentle walks along the Beaches of the Southeast US, afternoon naps in a Pawleys Island hammock. But there is also a "boom" in the heart's desire to live where you can revel in your surroundings and make friendships with like-minded souls.
As more and more of us decide we've worked long enough and hard enough to warrant a second home, a change in our home, or a place to retire the Sweet Tea Coast works its magic. The staff of this magazine invites you to step across the threshold to Coastal Homes Southern Style.
By Dick Byrd
Originally published in Coastal Homes magazine
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