Alabama NewsCenter June/July

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Fast-forward to 1989. What Milo’s Tea CEO Tricia Wallwork was by then a large, successful burger chain began brewing and distributing its Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea in gallon jugs to Birmingham area stores. In 2006, the company introduced its Unsweet Tea and its No-Calorie Tea. For the next decade, Milo’s Tea grew from Birmingham to other parts of Alabama and the Southeast and then to other states. It also added smaller, individual containers to the lineup.

“Now you can find Milo’s Tea from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Miami and from San Diego to (Washington) D.C.,” said Milo’s Tea CEO Tricia Wallwork, the granddaughter of Milo and Bea. “We love our sweet tea in the South, but let me tell you they love it up North, too.”

Sales prove that to be true. Wallwork said Milo’s Tea is doubling sales every five years and its manufacturing and distribution operations are constantly expanding.

“When we started here in Bessemer, we had three and a half New organic and specialty teas from the Bessemer acres and 30,000 square feet,” she said. “Today, we have 15 plant are already making waves in the U.S. industry. acres and 150,000 square feet.”

By Michael Tomberlin Also growing is the product line.

In 2014, Milo’s added lemonade, decaffeinated sweet tea

MILO’S TEA ENJOYS SWEET SOUTHERN TASTE OF SUCCESS IN ALABAMA

You don’t have to read the tea leaves to know which maker of the pre-made Southern brew is most infused in Alabama and the Southeast.

Milo’s is a name long known for hamburgers with a secret sauce, but it turns out the real secret may be in the brewing of the Southern elixir that is sweet tea.

When Milo Carlton opened the first Milo’s Hamburger Shop in Birmingham in 1946 after returning from World War II, the sauce was special but so were other touches like handmade pies, customer service and pre-sweetened tea.

One holdover from the Great Depression and the war was the rationing of staples like sugar. In restaurants, people still added their own sugar to each glass of tea. Carlton’s wife, Bea, needed sugar for the pies, and having a sugar bowl at every table meant there was sugar sitting around not being used.

So Carlton decided to blend the sugar into the tea and serve it already sweet. It was a hit and has remained so ever since.

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Overseeing the Southern elixir that is sweet tea.

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and a blend of lemonade and sweet.

“Those products came after listening to our customers and what they were wanting,” Wallwork said. “The same is true for the new products.”

Those new products are four new U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified Café Style Organic Teas. Instead of the familiar gallon jugs, the new organic teas are packaged in 59-ounce carafes. The new teas come in Sweet, Light Sweet, Green Citrus and Light Green Citrus flavors. The teas are sweetened with certified-organic cane sugar or a blend of organic cane sugar and organic stevia.

“Our loyal Milo’s customers reached out to us,” Wallwork said. “They called, emailed, contacted us through social media and communicated to their local grocery stores that they wanted the same great Milo’s Tea flavor using organic ingredients and also green teas. So that’s what we have created.”

Wallwork said Milo’s Tea has always brewed its products with all-natural ingredients, so organic was a natural and easy

extension of the brand. The new containers did require some adjustments to the bottling and packaging lines. The new teas are making their way through distributors now and will begin arriving in Alabama stores in the coming weeks.

The USDA National Organic Program has verified that the ingredients and the brewing and bottling processes all comply with the USDA organic regulations.

So, it’s organic, but is it good?

If it’s awards or recognition you need, Milo’s Tea has been there, done that and got the “tea shirt.”

At the recent North American Tea Championship in Los Angeles, Milo’s swept the “Ready to Drink Sweet Tea” category.

Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea took the top spot, the new Milo’s Café Style Light Sweet placed second and Milo’s M59 took third. Milo’s Sweet Tea & Lemonade and Milo’s Café Style Green Citrus both scored third in their respective categories.

“You don’t have be a Southerner to recognize good sweet tea,” Wallwork said.

BIRMINGHAM BARONS GM JONATHAN NELSON IS THE TEAM’S GIVING ARM

mingham community.

“The Barons have been around since 1885, and a big part of our success is being an active community partner,” Nelson said.

“We want to participate with all the different organizations in town. Whether it’s promoting a walk, a fundraiser or a dinner, we want to bring awareness to their campaigns.”

Nelson has earned many honors, including the Jimmy Bragan Executive of the Year award in 2009. Along with Barons owner Stan Logan, Nelson oversaw the design, building and opening of the award-winning Regions Field. He is a native of Fairhope and started as an intern with the Barons in 1993.

“I think that in life, you owe a responsibility to give back to the community, and so many people help you along the way,” he said. “Fortunately, this is my 23rd season with the Barons.

It’s important that we all give back. It’s our responsibility not only as corporate partners but also as individuals in our society.”

For Nelson, being the general manager of the Birmingham Barons is a way of providing his community with the great American pastime, and plenty of good to go with it.

Play ball!

This Alabama Bright Light goes beyond baseball to keep the team involved.

By Karim Shamsi-Basha For 12 Alabamians on June 3, baseball became the ultimate American pastime – for the rest of their lives.

America’s colors, sports, music and culture decorated Regions Field and provided the perfect background for a naturalization ceremony. The 12 took the Oath of Allegiance as officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services inaugurated them into the great melting pot, the United States.

Birmingham Barons General Manager Jonathan Nelson addressed the new citizens: “Baseball is America’s pastime, and there is no better place to become a U.S. citizen than at a ballpark.”

Nelson said events like the inauguration ceremony remind him why he loves his job.

“We were honored to host a naturalization here at Regions Field,” he said. “Obviously, a very special day for all those individuals becoming U.S. citizens. It’s also important for our organization to be active community partners.”

For Nelson, the experience was one of many that exemplify the Birmingham Barons’ service to the community. Nelson leads the team in supporting charitable entities such as Children’s of Alabama, the Salvation Army and many others. The Barons help nonprofits raise money through jersey auctions and special game nights.

The team also holds youth events and designed its Community Heroes program to recognize teachers, firefighters, law enforcement and volunteers who make a difference in the Bir-

Birmingham Barons General Manager Jonathan Nelson

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BEAR BRYANT RING RETURNED TO ALL-AMERICAN CRIMSON TIDE PLAYER NEARLY 50 YEARS AFTER IT WAS STOLEN Tide fans found the ring at an online auction and bought it back for its rightful owner.

By Michael Tomberlin

“I got a notice that they had a ’64 Alabama A-Club ring with a notation of ‘to Wayne Freeman from Paul Bryant,’” Brakefield said.

Brakefield knew his friends Larry Alley and Bucky Wood were friends with Freeman and could check into the matter.

When Wood reached Freeman’s son-in-law, John Burrows, they learned the ring was taken several years ago and a plan was hatched to get it back.

The four men decided they would pitch in and pay whatever it took to make the winning bid. After a night of bidding that finally ended at midnight, the men had the winning bid of $2,000.

“It took us maybe a couple of months now to get it,” Brakefield said. “We finally got it today and you can just tell by the look on his face and the way he’s talking and everything it’s a special, special day.”

Wayne Freeman was an All-American offensive lineman on Paul “Bear” Bryant’s second national championship-winning team at the University of Alabama and that’s something nobody can ever take away from him.

But somebody did. Sort of.

Freeman played guard on the 1964 team that won the national championship. The player from Fort Payne with the size 14 shoes was given the nickname “Foots.” He The Ring Returned earned All-American honors and Bryant is The men presented the ring to Freeman quoted on the Crimson Tide official website over lunch at the Fish Market in downtown as saying, “He’s the finest guard I’ve ever Birmingham.

Burrows brought his fathercoached.” in-law from Locust Fork, where Freeman When Freeman finished playing footis retired, telling him he had some people ball for the Crimson Tide, Bryant gave him he wanted him to see. an “A Club” ring with the inscription inside “I had chills when I first got ahold of reading “To Wayne Freeman from Paul it,” Freeman said on getting the ring back.

Bryant.”

“It’s just unbelievable.”

“It’s a special ring because back when More than a few times, Freeman got I was playing, you had to get your degree,” choked up holding the ring and talking Freeman said. “This ring was not from the about Bryant.

Burrows would pat him on university, it’s from Coach Bryant personalthe back to show his understanding and ly. That carries a lot more leverage. A lot of support. guys didn’t ever get a ring.”

“The biggest thing is it’s from Coach Freeman said Bryant would wait for Bryant and it was personal with him,” players to show him their diplomas before Wayne Freeman with the ring Freeman said. “It means a great deal to the he would mail them the ring. that was originally given to him by players.

You go back and look at Bill BatFrom the time he got it, the ring lived Coach Bear Bryant. tle and a lot of them, they still wear that on Freeman’s hand. He would take it off to ring.

They might not wear their national sleep and when he washed his hands. It was championship ring, but they wear that ring.” at a bathroom bar in Alabama when he thought he would never For Brakefield and the other men, they were just glad to see see the ring again. the ring back in the hands of its rightful owner.

“The last time I remember it, I was washing my hands and “I’m just glad to be here and glad to meet old number 71,” set it up on a sink and walked out,” he said. “Five minutes later I Brakefield said. ran back in the bathroom and it was gone.”

The ring itself was found next to a curb in Omaha, Nebraska, Freeman said that was in either 1967 or 1968. He thought and a pawn shop there put it up for sale through the auction, about the ring often for a year or two and then he eventually according to the auction listing. stopped thinking about it.

Freeman’s not sure how it ended up in Omaha. He said he’s The Ring Resurfaces never been there. The ring is not studded with diamonds and it Tom Brakefield is a lifelong Alabama fan who lives in Grey- doesn’t have much gold. In fact, only one person definitely constone outside of Birmingham and is always on the lookout for siders it a priceless treasure.

Crimson Tide collectables.

And that person owns it again.

An auction house sent him an email alert that a rare item was “It’s worth a lot more in memory than it is in value,” Freecoming up for bid. man said.

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ALABAMA MAKERS

THE MAKER: JASON BURNS

J.R. BURNS STRINGED INSTRUMENT REPAIR CO.

BY BOB BLALOCK Jason Burns was the middle school kid just nerdy enough to watch PBS. He had begun playing guitar when he was 12, but hated his axe’s garish red finish.

The furniture guys on public television offered the perfect solution: a wood stain made from tobacco.

The Hayden teen sanded the finish off his guitar, and set about creating what he hoped would be a beautiful, rich tobacco stain for it.

“They were using real tobacco, so I found somebody to go down to the store, because I wasn’t old enough to buy tobacco, to buy me a big block of chewing tobacco,” Burns remembers. “I took my mom’s nice pans out and started boiling this tobacco up, and was going to make a stain for that guitar, and it was one of the biggest, stickiest messes. The pots ... had burned tobacco in them; it was just gross, it was totally wrong.

“But yeah, that’s how I started out. It was really bad decisions at 13, 14 years old,” he says with a laugh.

From that dubious trip down “tobacco road,” Burns traveled a path that led to him becoming one of Alabama’s most sought after banjo builders. That didn’t happen, though, until he played in a series of punk rock, country and singer-songwriter bands.

What Burns discovered was that his favorite part of touring wasn’t performing. “I wanted to work on guitars,” he says.

In the late 1990s, Burns began doing instrument repair at a sound studio in Tarrant near Birmingham. In 2001, he moved his business to Homewood Musical Instrument Co., the iconic shop owned by Bob Tedrow. Tedrow obviously had a strong influence on Burns, who began dressing like him – pants, shirt and tie with a work apron. More importantly, he shared with Burns a “wealth of knowledge” about instrument repair.

“He would teach me how to repair violins, upright basses, cellos, more extensive work than I was doing,” Burns says. Performing structural work, like repairing broken headstocks, and having access to more tools led to building instruments.

Burns didn’t start out with banjos. Instead, he began building ukuleles and then electric guitars – and a reputation for excellence. About 12 years ago he decided to try his hand at banjos, mainly because he couldn’t afford to buy the one that he wanted for himself. With that decision, he fell into his passion.

“After a while, I started to get a little bit of a name for making banjos so it just kept going,” he says. “For some reason, and I just can’t put my finger on it, it’s one of my favorite instruments to build.”

Burns’ banjos harken back to the late 1800s and early 1900s –“I’m attracted to that era, that time in music” – and are built with a graceful elegance and impeccable attention to detail. He forms rims of maple,

walnut and cherry, sometimes clad in brass, and covers them with heads of goat or calf skin.

What Burns builds is “definitely not a bluegrass banjo.” Banjos made for bluegrass have a bright, crisp tone that slices through the din of guitars and fiddles. A Burns banjo has a sound he describes as “a warmer tone, more mellow” and is more of a “parlor instrument.”

That sound makes many banjo bloggers swoon.

From fretlessinfortwayne on banjohangout.org: “To take a line out of John Henry, ‘it rang like silver and it rang like gold.’ … It’s the finest sounding and constructed open-back banjo that I have ever laid my hands on. And I’ve played a lot.”

And from Brooklynbanjoboy: “I tend to have a sledgehammer approach to claw hammering, and this banjo stood the test. I can also ratchet it down – especially when the wife is trying to read the newspaper in the morning – and Jason’s banjo sounded elegant, articulate and sweet when played with a much lighter touch. … This is a great banjo.”

Burns has built more than 50 banjos, many of them made with special features for customers. Recently, though, he stopped taking custom orders and is concentrating on the banjos he wants to build.

“It’s not the customer’s fault. They have an idea of what would be really cool and really awesome,” Burns says. “But you don’t want to have someone make a bad decision when they’re spending $2,500 to $3,000 for a banjo.”

Nor does he want to spend anywhere from 40 to 120 hours creating something that, to him, feels more like a banjo that Jason Burns built for someone instead of a Jason Burns banjo.

“I want to be able to control it more, to THE PRODUCT: be excited about every time I build,” he says.

Hand-built banjos That’s because with a thriving repair business J.R. Burns Stringed Instrument Repair Co. and a wife and two small children, there’s not www.Burnsrepair.com as much time as he’d like for building banjos.

Jrburns333@gmail.com “It’s gotten hard to find any time to make 205-879-1690 banjos,” Burns says. “And I make a lot more money doing repair work than I do banjos.”

Not that he’s complaining. “It’s one of the best times, and one of the hardest, most stressful times,” he says.

“There’s just a lot going on. It’s very exciting, very hard, very fatigue-driven. And very fulfilling.”

Alabama Makers explores the artisans, crafts people, carpenters, cooks, bakers, blacksmiths, designers and others making original and extraordinary items in our state. If you know an Alabama Maker, let us know at alnewscenter@outlook.com.

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