Sweet iced tea: Southern anomaly. I went to Denver and found a Chick-fil-A (hallelujah); asked for sweet tea and got the "sugar is over there" speech. I immediately e-mailed Truett Cathy. No sweet tea at a Chick-fil-A? My eyeballs bled.

That's just wrong on so many levels...

Even in NYC last year we ordered sweet tea and they were able to oblige...

Stop the madness!!!

It's only a weird Southern anomaly when they add so much sugar to it that it tastes like your drinking syrup! As a native So Cal girl, it really freaked me out when I went to visit my sis in the Jacksonville area of Florida and they only served "sweet" tea at some of the restaurants. I like to add my own from those little "blue" or "yellow" sugar packets. :)

I married a Southern boy (grandparents from Vidalia, GA, now that's deep South). We had a lovely wedding and received many thoughtful gifts from all the guests. But what's a Yankee to do with 12 crystal tea glasses? I can honestly say that in nine year's of marriage we've never had occasion to break these tea glasses out. Perhaps I just don't feel I have a handle on he proper tea to sugar ratio?

Normal here (Ontario Canada). I have sent back unsweetened tea.

Wow! I guess I'm in the minority. I can't stand sweetened tea. A little lemon, maybe, but definitely not sweetened!

Iced tea: common

Sweet tea: weird Southern anomaly that needs to stay there because that stuff is NASTY.

SWEET TEA.
None of that unsweetened ice tea malarky.

IMHO there is nothing better on a hot day than a big glass of sweet tea.

Oh, I am so glad others think that Southern sweet tea stuff is icky. Just got back from a vacation in Florida, which isn't really the south, but close enough that I had to ask for unsweet tea and deal with puzzled looks.

I must confess - I am a transplanted Yankee and did not grow up with sweet tea as one fo the four food groups. Soon after moving to town, I met a friend for lunch at the Elliston Soda Shop and ordered tea to drink. The 178-year-old waitress asked me "sweeterun?" "Pardon me." Again she said, sweeterun?" I still didn''t understand. "What do you mean? " Exasperated she replied, "What kind of tea do you want? Sweet or un?" Ohhhh....

Ice tea, good. Sweet Tea? Oh no. But really? I'm not a grown up yet, because I'm still stuck on Diet Coke.

A friend was in Alabama and ordered hot tea. The waitress literally poured a glass of iced tea and put it in the microwave.

Swankette is right. Iced tea is common everywhere although years ago it was seasonal in the northeast. That's now changed, but I can remember my mother doing her own rendition of the Jack Nicholsen sandwich scene from Five Easy Pieces in NY during winter in the '70's:
"Do you have tea?" (yes)
"Do You have ice?" (yes) . "Do you have a glass?"(yes)...It never failed to embarass me, but at least she never told the waitress to hold the lemon between her legs!
Sweet tea...only in the South. And please! Don't let me see it called "ice tea"...that makes me crazy!

What Swankette said.

Iced tea -- the liquid equivalent of oxygen. Gotta have both.

Sweet tea -- like Scotch, it's an acquired taste. However, since my folks were from the South, I've acquired a fondness for both liquids.

Mmmm.....sweet tea. Chick-fil-a is about the only place around here that you can get the real stuff. Ohio must be just close enough to the South. But then again, we JUST got Chick-fil-a. Mmmmm.....Chick-fil-a...

If it's available in a restaurant here in the Pacific NW it's called Iced Tea, not sweet tea. I prefer it sweetened though. My husband makes it a gallon at a time. He gets these big tea bags from some coffee supply shop and boils up a pot of water. He lets the tea steep for a few minutes, and then pours it into a gallon container, along with a cup of sugar. We keep this in the fridge and have iced tea whenever we want.

These days there is almost no place in the country where iced tea would be welcome. (Shudders off the snow, walks off....)

Ya gotta be careful in the north when you order tea. If you just say tea, they bring you a cup of hot water and a tea bag.
And if you order iced tea, they bring you the crap from the fountain. ICK! We got so we would ask if it was fresh brewed or not. And they are not used to refills, either. Its like all they drink is a thimbleful and they're done. And instant tea is crap, too. But I'm a diet coke girl myself

As a northeasterner transplanted to Virginia I've had the opposite experience of the one Larisa describes. Ordered tea and instead of a cup of hot water and a tea bag I was surprised to receive a glass of heavily sugared iced tea (at breakfast!).

I always thought that it was strange that "tea" in the north means hot tea, and "tea" in the south means iced tea.

I always thought that it was strange that asking for "tea" in the north means hot tea, and in the south, it means iced tea.

The Mason-Dixon line seems to be curiously close to the unspoken line where diner waitresses assume you want your tea sweetened or not.

Anyone had the Fruit Tea at Calypso? It is the best.

When I was working in North Carolina, I had to ask for "Unsweet Tea". Who would've figured they'd realize I was the "not from 'round here" just by my drink order!

I thought I had been to the south before and eaten southern food every time I visited my family in Missourri. And then I went to Gulf Shores, AL. And every damn restaurant they would ask if I wanted sweet tea. And I would say no, because I like to put my own sugar in and why would they want to go and do it for me but then they would never give me sugar to put in my tea and they'd look at me like I was nuts if I asked for it! What the heck is wrong with sweetening your own tea? Sorry. Got off on a little rant there.

Aaahhh, sweet tea! The wine of the south!

I LOVE tea... I dont think it has anything to do with the south.

whereas north of the border, when ordering "iced tea", the wait staff make a big deal of letting you know if they will be serving you _unsweetened_ iced tea. otherwise, it's sweet...

(and I much prefer the unsweetened!)

Two funny tea stories. Many (many!) years ago, I was engaged to a boy from Connecticut. We went to dinner in his home town and I ordered tea. Guess what I got...? A steaming hot cup of tea. I ended up not marrying him, but it wasn't because of the tea incident.

When my sister's husband got stationed in North Dakota (of all places!!) my sister could not find sweet tea served at any restaurant. Nor could she find the right tea bags to make her own. We had to send them to her from down here in the sunny south. And? so many of her friends loved her sweet tea, that she ended up making take-home supplies for them.

i love iced tea- drink it often; sweet tea is a southern thing - as I learned the first time I drove thru McD's years ago in S. Carolina, got iced tea, added sugar and really gagged..
but I love sweet tea!!

Like everyone else, I agree that sweet tea is a southern thing, but iced tea is common throughout the US. We drink it all the time here at our house, but sweet tea? Ugh.

If you do choose to sweeten your tea, I think it blends better when you put the sugar in it as you brew it, as opposed to sweetening it yourself later on. It's like it absorbs it better.

Furthermore, sweet tea is not weird. Maybe to somebody in Wisconsin, but, that's their problem. No way. If I have to drink tea, I want it sweet. You will only see me get tea when there is no Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke at a restaurant. Ixnay on Iet-Day Epsi-Pay. I did crave sweetened iced tea when I was pregnant the last time.

Some restaurants in my part of the South now serve half & half! (Half sweet tea, half unsweetened.) I'm also seeing fruit-flavored iced teas on menus, too. Love it!

Some restaurants in my part of the South now serve half & half! (Half sweet tea, half unsweetened.) I'm also seeing fruit-flavored iced teas on menus, too. Love it!

There seems to be some debate (or disagreement )on what is "Iced Tea". Most people have mentioned only two, but in reality there are three.

Iced Tea - Tea with Sugar and (usually) Lemon

Unsweetened Iced Tea - same as a above, only... well unsweetened.

Sweet Tea - an anomaly of a Southern Drink that takes the typical "Iced Tea" and adds lethal doses of sugar so that it tastes like sugar water with a hint of tea rather than a tea sweetened with sugar.

I hope this clarifies it for all :)

"Iced tea" is a staple "up here in Canada" - fountain, can, bottle, instant powder. In order to get something comparable when we travel in the States, we ask for sweet tea.

Iced tea itself is quite common and probably of all the Northerners I know, the standard summertime drink.
However, Yankees don't make it sweet. You have to add sugar yourself up here.
I am a Southern Girl in a Yankee body, therefore, I love it sweet and when I'm in the South, getting to order tea in a restaurant and it's already sweet is HEAVEN!

I've always had sweet iced tea in Ontario (sugar added - sometimes with lemon). Homemade, bottled etc. What exactly is the difference between iced tea and southern sweet tea? Obviously I don't get out much :)

My family is addicted to tea. It is always our beverage of choice. Of course, I'm from North Carolina. We drink tea for breakfast down here.

I agree with Lisa! I'm from Florida, and I can't start the day without iced tea. Forget coffee, it's just too darned hot. I have to say, though, that sweetened tea makes my teeth ache. Ugh! Unsweetened any day! Or you could just inject the caffeine right into my veins....

I'm the weird Southern anomaly. 'cause I like iced tea but not sweet tea. And I don't like watermelon either. Or biscuits.

Just kidding about the biscuits. Love biscuits.

Honestly.... did you think this topic would garner such a response?

Iced tea common in Texas.
Didn't know Sweet Tea untill Chik-Fil-A started selling it and they didn't always have it.

It must be common in the deep south.

Oh and I don't care for Sweet Tea. Too sweet for me.

How funny! My 2 cents, from SW Florida, sweet tea only. Around here it's sold at the restaurants & the gas stations!

Normal for my area. I am not really a big fan of unsweetened tea either.

Sooo...I am from NY. I first found out about sweet tea when I went to visit my boyfriend (who lives in NC). I absolutely fell in love with it and I am having withdrawls!! I NEED SWEET TEA! Thank goodness I will be moving down there in 2 months., because no one up here knows what the heck it is! and as for Chic-fil-a...omg I love that too! it's so not fair that there not in the north.

Ok, just because all of the restaurants in the house add enough sugar to it to turn it into syrup doesn't mean thats how sweet tea is traditionally made. Traditionally sweet tea has 1 cup of sugar to a gallon of tea. This is how it is supposed to be made. This passed down from a long long line of old southern ladies.