The "Sweet Tea" Mason-Dixon Line
If you've spent any time in the southern US, you know about "sweet tea." Pre-sweetened -- sometimes mouth-puckeringly so -- sweet tea is a staple throughout the south. But what do we mean when we say "the south"?
Historically, the line of separation between the north and the south has been the Mason-Dixon line. This line, set by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon on October 9, 1767, settled a border dispute and defined Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. During the civil war, the line stood as a separation between free and slave states.
Today, Virginia seems to have an internal conflict -- a split personality, if you will -- in which the northern area of the state does not generally offer sweet tea; in the southern part of the state, sweet tea is far more common. Perhaps the line of of change in sweet tea availability -- a Sweet Tea Mason-Dixon line -- may be the most realistic line of demarcation separating the North from the South today.
[Via Neatorama]
Historically, the line of separation between the north and the south has been the Mason-Dixon line. This line, set by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon on October 9, 1767, settled a border dispute and defined Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. During the civil war, the line stood as a separation between free and slave states.
Today, Virginia seems to have an internal conflict -- a split personality, if you will -- in which the northern area of the state does not generally offer sweet tea; in the southern part of the state, sweet tea is far more common. Perhaps the line of of change in sweet tea availability -- a Sweet Tea Mason-Dixon line -- may be the most realistic line of demarcation separating the North from the South today.
[Via Neatorama]
Filed under: Food and Drink
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jun 13th 2007 @ 1:16PM
Jamie Rhein said...
Interesting details about what makes the south the south. When we were in Alabama two years ago I had no idea what the waitress was asking the first time we sat down in a restaurant. "Sweet tea?" was the first thing she said. It wasn't that she wasn't speaking clearly, she was, it's just that I hadn't heard someone ask this before. It didn't follow the usual line of what would you like to drink questioning I'm accustomed to. By the number of pitchers of sweet tea at all the tables around us, I gathered everyone drinks sweet tea in Alabama. My family in northern Kentucky always has pitchers of iced-tea in the refrigerator in the summer but you add your own sugar. My family in southeastern Kentucky assumes you want sugar so it's generally already added, but they just call it iced-tea. Sweet tea sounds sweet. I love the way it sounds, but I never put sugar in tea--or coffee.
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Jun 13th 2007 @ 3:04PM
Karen said...
I live in South Florida - or NY south, so mostly we drink sodas.
I grew up in Southeast Virginia and you drank tea but you specified either unsweet or sweet tea. I think you line needs to take a dip.
However, I'm moving to GA and when I ask for unsweet tea - no lemon, the looks I get are vicious. Aaack. I guess I'll learn to cut my calories somewhere else.
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Mar 24th 2008 @ 1:38PM
Meade said...
I disgaree with this. The line should be moved up to around Fredericksburg. Richmond is a TRULY SOUTHERN city, and its barely included. I think its flawed.
The Mason Dixon line will always be the line between North and South for me. I grew up in Northern Virginia and I am a born and bred Southerner.
Richmond is more Southern than Atlanta or Nashville.
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Jul 15th 2008 @ 2:59PM
michelle said...
Lived in the deep South my entire life and currently live in coastal Georgia. Servers don't care if you don't like the sweetened stuff, but you must ask for it without the lemon, otherwise you get it.
Personally, I never drink iced tea unless I'm at home because no one knows how to make it. And sweetening it requires the use of a simple syrup after-the-fact so that the drinker can decide for themselves.
A few, cheap, dust-filled tea bags steeped from anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours is the usual tea-making method from what I hear, but personally I'd rather drink my own urine than the usual hick tea that is common around here.
I was making tea (it's tea or iced tea for purists like me) and suffered second-degree burns when pouring it into an insulated carafe. At the ER I told the nurse that I burned myself with tea, and she looked positively confused. My husband then had to say, "hot tea." Idiots.
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Sep 18th 2008 @ 11:34AM
A said...
Wow that whole interactive map was very impressive. I grew up in NoVa so I know where to go for sweet tea but your depiction seems to be VERY acurrate in my opinion. However, I would like to know of your extensive research. How did you get all this information?
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