Cultural differences as observed by a born
-and-bred New Yorker now living in the south. #1
Tea. Hot tea. Iced tea. Sweet tea. Nonsweet tea. Iced tea with lemon. Sweet tea never with lemon. Confused? Tell me about it. In the northern US, when you order tea in a restaurant, they bring you a mug of hot water with the teabag in it. If it’s a fancy restaurant they’ll bring you a teacup and saucer. In the southern US, when you order tea in a restaurant, they look slightly confused and ask “you mean hot tea?“ The first time this happened I had no idea why they needed to ask, until I later realized that in the south “tea” refers primarily to sweet tea, which is cold, extremely sweet and served with ice. Up north we call that “iced tea” because the amount of sugar, if any, is optional. A slice of lemon is also optional in iced tea, and is usually preferred, but is never even offered in sweet tea. It’s just not done. Just how sweet is sweet tea? Extremely. There is a lot of freaking sugar in sweet tea, and the amount does not seem to vary from place to place. Up north we don’t care for somebody else determining how much sugar should be in our tea. We are narrowminded tea snobs. Tea is hot and iced tea is cold. This all makes sense when you realize that the north has long cold winters and we love our hot beverages and we always seem to be dieting, but the south has long hot summers and they love their cold beverages and sugarcane was once grown here in abundance. Southerners love sugar. A lot of freaking sugar. Sweet tea IS dangerously delicious. It’s also inexpensive. Go to any McDonald’s drive-through in the south and ask for a sweet tea, (don’t mention a size because there’s only one—HUGE, because why would you want less?), for $1. ONE DOLLAR. Up north you can’t even get a cup of water for a dollar. It’s as if the south runs on sweet tea and it must be made readily available in mass quantities to everyone, rich or poor. If only New York felt the same way about coffee.