Texas tea

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

Texas tea (countable and uncountable, plural Texas teas)

1. (slang) Crude oil.
   • 2011, Russell J. Fishkind, Probate Wars of the Rich and Famous, →ISBN:

     Marshall didn't stumble on his fortune, but sure enough, his well was filled by the same Texas tea.

   • 2015, Jimmy R. Watson, Big Jesus: A Pastor's Struggle with Christology, page 27:

     A few months later, much like the Beverly Hillbillies without the Texas Tea, I loaded up my family and traveled off to the big Baptist university a hundred miles away.

   • 2016, Michael Toia, FROG TONGUES: and Other Recollections of an Old Patriarch, →ISBN:

     A contaminant came up with the brine . . . rock oil . . . petroleum . . . Texas tea.

   • 2016, Andrea Valdez, How to Be a Texan: The Manual, →ISBN, page 183:

     Oilmen had spent weeks drilling to a depth more than 1,000 feet into Sour Springs Mound, a salt dome a few miles south of Beaumont, hoping to come into some “Texas Tea.” And at about 10:30 in the morning on January 10, 1901, the teacup runneth over.

2. (slang) Motor oil.
   • My car just hit 3,000 so it needs some new Texas tea.
3. A video slot machine that has a Texas oil industry theme.
   • 2016, Caroline Kepnes, Hidden Bodies, →ISBN:

     My hat itches and I have lost nine dollars at Texas Tea.

4. A variation of Long Island Iced Tea, a highly potent mixed drink made of a variety of alcoholic ingredients, without any actual iced tea.
   • 2009, Judy Allen, Event Planning, →ISBN:

     Cowboy Cocktails, such as Jack and Seven, also known as Seven and Seven in the South (Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 and 7UP), Texas Comfort (Southern Comfort and Ginger Ale), Texas Tea (Jack Daniel's and Pepsi, among other ingredients), whiskey/bourbon on the rocks or straight up, and whiskey sours may find their way on to your beverage menu.

   • 2011, J. Scott Henderson, White Man, Black Man, Chinese Man: A Synoptic Tale of a True Friendship, →ISBN:

     My poison was Long Island Iced Tea, or Texas Tea.

   • 2015, Conn Hamlett, John Lee Johnson: Both Barrels Blazing: Double Trouble, →ISBN:

     When he returned to his house, both men insisted he take a snort of their Texas tea. He humored them by taking one small sip that sent thunderbolts down his neck, and he becan coughing like a "lunger".

   • 2015, Attica Locke -, Pleasantville, →ISBN:

     He's drinking a Texas Tea, running the black straw through the soup of ice cubes and liquor.

5. (Texas) Iced tea.
   • 2005, JoAnna Carl, The Chocolate Mouse Trap: A Chocoholic Mystery, →ISBN:

     It gave Mike time to make me some Texas tea.” Martin looked puzzled. “I thought Texas tea was slang for oil.” “It may be. But to Texans like Mike and me, it merely means well-brewed, properly iced tea.”

   • 2015, Sarah Ockler, The Summer of Chasing Mermaids, →ISBN, page 166:

     Kirby paused for a sip of Texas tea, then went on.

6. Strong coffee.
   • 1991 May, “Texas Tea Time”, in The Alcalde, volume 79, number 5:

     The event, sponsored by the ESA Student Involvement Committee, featured a Texas-sized cake from Mrs. Johnson's Bakery and gallons of Texas Tea, donated by Enterprise Coffee Beans, Dallas

   • 2012, S. Louis King, Gnome Home Papers, →ISBN, page 318:

     Hot, steaming coffee. I finished dressing—shorts, cutoff t-shirt and flip flops. It's standard dress for summer in Texas. The coffee is already made—last night. Machine grade oil, Texas tea. Very stout

   • 2013, Robert Galinsky, Coffee Crazy, →ISBN:

     “Today's Texas Tea” or the “Other Brown Liquid”? Globally, coffee is the second leading commodity to oil.

   • 2015, Ellice Lints, My Time Is Your Time, →ISBN:

     Hot, black coffee was good for what ailed her. Good old black java, Texas tea, sighed Elizabeth as she breathed in the coffee's aroma.

   • 2016, Elwyn M. Grimes, The Thirty Minute War, →ISBN:

     Included were utensils, a drinking glass-sized bottle of sweetened Texas tea, and a small bowl of carrot sticks.

7. (slang) Marijuana.
   • 2009, Karen Foxlee, The Anatomy of Wings, →ISBN:

     'Are you smoking ghanja?' 'What?' 'Texas tea, grass, greefo, hay, Mary Jane, pot?' 'Texas tea?' 'Have you been getting blasted?'

   • 2010, Rupert Till, Pop Cult: Religion and Popular Music, →ISBN, page 39:

     Examples of songs about cannabis include "Muggles" by Louis Armstrong, "Reefer Man" by Cab Calloway, "A Viper's Drag" by Fats Waller, 'Viper Mad' by Sidney Bechet, 'Gimme a Reefer' by Bessie Smith, 'When I Get LowI Get High' by Ella Fitzgerald, 'Ol' Man River (Smoke a Little Tea)' by Duke Ellington, 'Texas Tea Party' by Benny Goodman, 'Smoking Reefers' by Larry Adler and 'I'm Felling High and Happy' by Gene Krupa.

   • 2011, Peter Doyle, The Devil's Jump, →ISBN, page 51:

     “max, you know i don't smoke.” “this is different.” “What is it?” “gage.” “eh?” “texas tea. mexican spinach. maitland madness. loco weed. indian hemp. gangster. marijuana.”

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana

8. (slang) Purple drank.
   • 2011, Ryan Winfield, South of Bixby Bridge, →ISBN, page 140:

     But she went to her car and came back with a purple pharmacist's refill bottle of promethazine-codeine cough syrup. She called it Texas tea.

   • 2012, Rachel Hooper, Andy Coolquitt, page 41:

     "Lean" is also a term in Texas hip-hop slang, referring to a mixture of cough syrup and soda popularized in the mid-1990s and also known as purple drank or Texas tea.

   Synonyms: lean, purple drank, sizzurp

9. Diluted fertilizer filtered through manure.
   • 1999, Jerry W. Rockett, Troubles on the Horizon: Surviving Y2K, →ISBN, page 44:

     I had put a drain at the bottom of the barrel so I could direct the flow of water where I desired. Some people have referred to this liquid as “Texas Tea”, no offense, so I will refer to it as tea.

   • 2004, Dave Stevens, My Western Roots, →ISBN, page 1:

     Pa had a knack for growing and he spent many hours pampering his crops. He had developed a fertilizer; he called Texas Tea that involved fermenting dried cow and or buffalo manure in water barrels and pouring the liquid over the freshly planted crops.

10. (slang, US) A mixture of drugs (pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride, and sodium thiopental) used to execute a person by lethal injection.
    • 2007 July 23, Tad Friend, “Dean of Death Row”, in The New Yorker‎^[1]:

      San Quentin’s execution logs indicate that, during six of the prison’s eleven lethal injections, the condemned may have been partly conscious; similar findings have led eight states to suspend use of the chemical mixture—sometimes called Texas Tea—employed in most of the death-penalty states, including California.

    • 2013, Elizabeth Strout, The Burgess Boys, New York, NY: Random House, published 2014, →ISBN, page 60:

      “ […] He was from Texas. Short disgusting little prick. Didn't even know what Texas Tea was. So I told him.” Jim pointed his finger toward Helen. “I said it's what you guys use to kill people now that you've stopped frying them faster than potato chips. Sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride. He didn't say a thing. Dickwad. Just got a little smile on his face.”