Who’s Your Sugar Daddy?

If there is one thing that continues to divide the North and the South in this country, it’s how they take their iced tea. Besides McDonalds, you would be hard pressed to find sweet tea anywhere North of the Mason-Dixon line. Drop South of that imaginary line and all you have to do is order a “tea” — unsweetened tea by special request only.

I mention this fact because June is National Iced Tea Month and it represents another chance for our country to scoff at our regional differences.

As I grew up in North Carolina, any tea that doesn’t give me the shakes after 24 ounces is not worthy of rotting my teeth. Having gone to school with too many non-Southerners, I am fully aware of their revulsion to our brew. Too sweet they argue, and what’s the problem when you can just add sugar yourself? The argument generally spirals out of control when I “politely” explain that none of the sugar will dissolve and instead just settles on the bottom, requiring constant stirring just to get a hint of the delicious sweet taste that real tea provides every time.

And since I am usually hopped up on 2 cups of pure cane sugar at this point, I seem to do most of the arguing.

So this month of June, and every June, Southerners you enjoy your drink and Northerners you try to enjoy yours. After all, in July we get to unite behind Ronald Reagan’s sole lasting achievement, National Ice Cream Month.

Photo by ratterrell