In "Side Orders," a collection of short essays on Southern cookery and culture, John Egerton writes that iced tea is a "monument to simplicity," a drink that requires "nothing supplementary to make it delicious." Egerton says that the "usual refinements — sugar, lemon, mint — are like so much frosting on a fine cake."

But press the Nashville-based author and activist for his favorite iced tea recipe and he reveals himself to be an embellisher, the kind of fellow who trowels the frosting on with a heavy hand. He's also a generous soul, willing to share that recipe with readers.

Louie Favorite/Staff (ENLARGE)

Dave Roberts, chef at Sam & Dave's BBQ1 in Marietta, gives his creamy butternut squash soup a Southern twist by enhancing the broth with tea and brown sugar.

Louie Favorite/Staff (ENLARGE)

Chef Ben Barker of the award-winning Magnolia Grill in Durham, N.C., likes to use sweet tea as a brine for pork loins and chops.

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Other Southern cookbook authors and chefs get even more creative with sweet tea, spiking it with their favorite spirits or using it to flavor dishes sweet and savory. Here's a sample.

Mint Simple Syrup
20 servings

Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes, plus 2 or more hours refrigeration time

At Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, customers sweeten their iced tea to taste with this simple syrup.

1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups water
1 large bunch mint

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring and swirling the pan to dissolve the sugar. Dip a pastry brush in hot water and wipe down the sides to dissolve any sugar crystals. Add a large bunch of fresh mint to the hot syrup. Simmer for 2 minutes without stirring, remove from heat, and let cool. Once cool, cover and let the syrup infuse for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator, then strain the mint from the syrup.

— Adapted from "Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions From Highlands Bar and Grill" (Artisan, $40)

Per serving: 42 calories (percent of calories from fat, 0), trace protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 1 milligram sodium.

Magnolia Grill's Sweet Tea Brined Pork Chops
4 servings

Hands on: 25 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes, plus 24 hours brining time

Chef Ben Barker of the award-winning Magnolia Grill in Durham, N.C., likes to use sweet tea as a brine for pork loins and chops. Atlanta cooking instructor Virginia Willis tried it with chops, with excellent results. "The tea brine makes them tender, moist and succulent," she says. "The sweetened mixture caramelizes nicely on the grill, creating beautiful (and tasty!) grill marks."

1 quart water
2 orange pekoe tea bags, preferably Luzianne or Lipton
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
6 whole allspice berries
6 whole cloves
4 cloves garlic, mashed flat with the back of a knife
4 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
1 bay leaf, preferably fresh
2 cups ice
4 (10- to 12-ounce) bone-in pork loin chops

In a large pot over medium high heat, combine the water, tea bags, salt, molasses, onion, coriander, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, garlic, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Transfer to a sealable container. Add ice and let cool to room temperature.

Remove tea bags. Add pork chops, seal and refrigerate for 24 hours. Remove the pork chops from the brine. Pat dry with paper towels; set aside at room temperature while preheating the grill.

Prepare a charcoal fire using about 6 pounds of charcoal and burn until the coals are completely covered with a thin coating of light gray ash, 20 to 30 minutes. Spread the coals evenly over the grill bottom, position the grill rack above the coals, and heat until medium-hot (when you can hold your hand 5 inches above the grill surface for no longer than 3 or 4 seconds). Or, for a gas grill, turn on all burners to high, close the lid and heat until very hot, 10 to 15 minutes.

Place the pork chops on the prepared grill and cook until an instant-read thermometer reaches 145 degrees, 5 to 7 minutes per side.

Per serving: 323 calories (percent of calories from fat, 44), 36 grams protein, 9 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 15 grams fat (5 grams saturated), 28 milligrams cholesterol, 319 milligrams sodium.

Fred Thompson's Beach Bourbon Slush
8 servings

Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

This potent concoction from the author of "Iced Tea" uses two of the South's favorite beverages, tea and bourbon.

2 cups unsweetened brewed black tea, chilled
5 cups water
1 pint Jack Daniel's Old No. 7
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 (12-ounce) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 (6-ounce) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
Chilled ginger ale, as needed

In a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or any container that is only a few inches deep and large enough to hold the mixture, combine the brewed tea, water, Jack Daniel's, sugar and lemonade and orange juice concentrates. Place in the freezer. About once every 45 minutes, stir the blend with a fork. Continue this for a couple of hours, until the mixture has the consistency of granita: icy, slushy and granular. To serve, use an ice cream scoop or large heavy spoon to fill a glass two-thirds full with the frozen tea. Top with some ginger ale. Don't stir.

Let the ginger ale coagulate with the frozen tea, then drink up.

Per serving: 267 calories (percent of calories from fat, 1), 1 gram protein, 36 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace fat (no saturated), no cholesterol, 5 milligrams sodium.

BBQ1's Butternut Squash Soup With Sweet Tea and Ginger
6-8 servings

Hands on: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Dave Roberts, chef at Sam & Dave's BBQ1 in Marietta, gives his creamy butternut squash soup a Southern twist by enhancing the broth with tea and brown sugar. "There's an underlying mild smokiness due to the use of the gunpowder tea," says Virginia Willis, who tested it. "Since the recipe uses vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, it really gives the soup another layer of flavor. Without the bacon, which is optional, it would be an excellent vegetarian soup, mainly because the tea fortifies the vegetable stock with flavor."

Gunpowder tea is a Chinese green tea in which leaves are rolled into tiny pellets. It's available at Whole Foods Markets and specialty stores.

9 cups vegetable broth
4 individual gunpowder tea packets
1 small finger fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 to 5 rosemary needles
1 leaf sage
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 slice hickory-smoked bacon, diced (optional)
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
5 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 North Georgia apple, such as Pink Lady, Golden Delicious or Lady William, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons salt (or less, to taste)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup half-and-half

In a large pot over high heat, bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add the tea packets, ginger, rosemary and sage. Set aside to steep for 20 minutes. Remove tea packets and set aside.

In a seperate pot over medium heat, add the butter, bacon, onion and jalapeno. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is clear and translucent but not brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Add squash and apple and stir to coat. Add brown sugar, salt and black pepper. Cook until the brown sugar is dissolved and the squash and jalapeno become fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the reserved vegetable-tea mixture. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until squash is very tender but not completely mush, about 30 minutes.

With a blender or immersion blender, puree the soup. Be careful with the hot liquid if using a traditional blender. If using a blender, fill the jar half full and pulse it until smooth (it may take 3 to 4 batches to do all the soup). Return to the pot and add half-and-half. Stir to combine. Bring back to a simmer over medium heat. Taste and adjust for seasonings. Serve immediately.

Per serving (based on 6): 417 calories (percent of calories from fat, 33), 22 grams protein, 53 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams fiber, 17 grams fat (10 grams saturated), 46 milligrams cholesterol, 2,944 milligrams sodium.

Sweet Tea Ice Pick
1 serving

Hands on: 5 minutes
Total time: 5 minutes

"Frankly, initially I thought the combination of vodka and iced tea with lemon sounded very bizarre, perhaps something wild teenagers would try, sneaking into their parents' liquor cabinet," says Virginia Willis, who has spotted variations on this drink in local bars and on Web sites. "It's deliciously refreshing — and dangerously so. The buzz isn't from the caffeine alone!"

2 ounces vodka, chilled
6 ounces iced sweet tea, chilled
Freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
Lemon wedge, for garnish

Fill a glass with ice. Add vodka and iced tea. Stir to combine. Add lemon juice to taste. Garnish with lemon and serve immediately.

Per serving: 197 calories (percent of calories from fat, 0), no protein, 17 grams carbohydrates, no fiber, no fat, no cholesterol, 9 milligrams sodium.

Tyler Florence's Individual Pecan Pies With Sweet Tea Caramel Sauce
12 servings

Hands on: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 1/2 hours

This over-the-top dessert from the South Carolina-reared Food Network star is a show stopper. Tester Virginia Willis cautions it's very important to use a large heavy-duty saucepan for making the caramel because the hot mixture will bubble up when the cream is added.

For the pie pastry dough:
4 tablespoons finely ground pecans (sometimes available in the produce department adjacent to whole pecans)
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
Pinch fine salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
2 egg whites, chilled
2 tablespoons ice water, if needed

For the filling:
2 eggs
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup pecan halves

For the Sweet Tea Caramel Sauce:
2 cups water
6 Earl Grey tea bags
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 quart vanilla bean ice cream, for serving, optional

To prepare the dough: In a food processor, combine the ground pecans, flour, salt and sugar. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the egg white and blend to bind the dough until it holds together without being too wet or sticky. Squeeze a small amount of dough together; if it is crumbly, add the ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Lightly coat a 12-cup muffin tray with nonstick spray. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8-inch-thick, then use a small bowl 3 inches in diameter or a large 3-inch ring mold as a guide to cut out circles. They should be slightly larger in diameter than the muffin tin hole, so when pressed in, the edges come halfway up the sides of the tin.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare the filling: In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs until frothy, then blend in sugars. Stir in the melted butter, vanilla, corn syrup and salt until well-blended. Arrange the pecans on the bottoms of the tart shells. Add filling to the shells almost to the top. Bake until the filling is set and slightly puffed, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a thin knife in the center of the pie. If it comes out pretty clean, you're good to go. Transfer the pies to a rack and cool.

While the pie is baking, prepare the caramel sauce: Bring 2 cups cold water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the tea bags, cover and let steep for 20 minutes. Remove the tea bags (squeeze them out) and then return tea to a simmer until it has reduced by half, so you have 1 cup of really strong tea remaining. Add 1/2 cup sugar to the saucepan and continue to simmer over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pot around, until the mixture is a deep caramel color and looks like syrup, about 10 minutes. Carefully pour in the cream. Be careful, as it will bubble up. Continue to cook for 1 minute. Serve with individual pecan pies and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, if desired.

— foodnetwork.com

Per serving, without ice cream: 513 calories (percent of calories from fat, 51), 7 grams protein, 57 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 29 grams fat (14 grams saturated), 95 milligrams cholesterol, 88 milligrams sodium.

John Egerton's Favorite Iced Tea
16 servings

Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes, plus 2 or more hours refrigeration

4 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large bunch mint
4 family-size Luzianne tea bags
1 (12-ounce) can limeade or lemonade
Fresh lime juice, to taste (optional)

In a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add sugar and mint. Return to a boil and add tea bags. Reduce heat to a simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let it steep until cool. Strain the tea, squeezing the bags to extract all the flavor. In a gallon jug, combine the tea and limeade and fill the jug to the top with water. Stir and refrigerate. If desired, add fresh lime juice.

Per serving: 62 calories (percent of calories from fat, 0), trace protein, 15 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace fat (no saturated), no cholesterol, 3 milligrams sodium.