I’ve gotten the $1 sweet tea at McDonalds. I’ve been served sweet tea by friends in Savannah. I don’t get it. It’s brown super-concentrated sugar water. Someone please explain.
I’m fairly certain that its only purpose is to anger you when you get it. When I say I want tea, I want a nice bitter drink, not this abomination! Gah!
What’s to explain? It’s tea. It’s sweet. It’s cold. It’s cheaper to make/serve than Coke*. It’s nectar of the gods.
*in the South, all carbonated soft drinks are Cokes. First question one would be asked is “Want a Coke?”, and if answered affirmative, second question is “What kind?”–acceptable answers include Sprite, 7-up, Dr. Pepper, Coke, Pepsi, Tab, etc.
You have to specify “unsweet tea” south of the Ohio River or so.
It’s a Southern thing.
Sweet tea is not sweetened iced tea. I believe the sugar is added in great quantities to the boiling water, enough to make Mountain Dew taste sour by comparison.
I sometimes mix 3/4 unsweet to 1/4 sweet and it still puts me in a diabetic coma.
Reminds me of the latest promotion at Popeye’s Chicken: “Sweeeet Tea.” (Apparently how good it is goes up with the number of "e"s in the name.) But what amuses the spouse and me is how they have a big container of Sweeeet Tea next to another big container of Sweeeet Tea with a small “Unsweet” badge on the bottom of it. Make up your minds, guys! Is it Sweeeet or Unsweet? And why isn’t it Unsweeeet? I guess they left a couple of spare E’s in the container. 
This reads like one of those emails that a yankee would write about Southerners. I’ve never heard an exchange like this in my life. A more accurate exchange would be:
“Wanna drink?”
“Yeah”
“Whut kind?”
“Diet Coke”
Sometimes the question may be posed as “Wanna Coke, or something?”
Sweet tea is an abomination. Unfortunately since moving to the south, I always have to specifiy “unsweet tea” when I order. Then they’ll give me iced tea with a spoon and a couple packets of sugar, since they can’t comprehend someone drinking it straight.
Yeah, we’re all a bunch of morons down here. It doesn’t have anything at all to do with the fact that a whole lot of people put artificial sweetener in unsweet tea. As we all know, waitresses bring a pat of butter with toast because they can’t comprehend someone eating it without a little Land o’ Lakes.
True, but the day old stuff I’ve drunk in New England is, too.
I believe it began as a convenience at picnics and other social functions where sugar bowl and spoon weren’t practical for a large group. That is the first place I saw it, and I don’t recall restaurants having sweet tea when I was a kid.
And I have heard it all of my life. Considering my ancestors rode with Forrest, Lee, Jackson, Mosby, and I live in one of the reddest states on the map, I’d strongly prefer you never imply I’m a yankee again.
It may have been a “Southern” thing 15+ years ago but it’s pretty much creeped everywhere since then. Lipton Brisk iced tea in cans is sweet tea. McDonalds has it everywhere. Every BBQ joint has it. Snapple anyone?
It’s just another non-carbonated sweetened beverage not unlike Gatorade, Kool-Aid, or Lemonade.
I lived in Georgia and Tennessee for over 40 years, and I disagree.
A Coke is always a Coke.
Where in the South do you live ?
I disagree, Labrador Deceiver. When I was just a youngster growing up in Texas, this is exactly what all carbonated soft drinks were called.
Me: “Can I have coke?”
Response: “What kind of coke do you want?”
Reply: “I’ll have a Sprite.”
When my father went into the Army, we moved to Germany. I still remember with heightened clarity ordering a soda at an Army PX. I asked for a coke, and the clerk handed me a Coca-Cola! I just stared at it in disbelief, but only was only 8 years old, so I didn’t say anything.
Seriously, when I was growing up, the word for any carbonated beverage was “coke.” Years later, I moved to the Chicago area, where it was referred to as “pop.” My wife called it “tonic” in Boston where she grew up. Most of the rest of the country just calls it “soda.”
The question, “What do you call carbonated beverages?” was a distinguishing question for regional accents when I took linguistics in college. (Having lived all over the country, I completely flummoxed the professor.)
See this map:
According to the map, the three most common names for carbonated soft drinks in the U.S. are “soda,” “pop,” and “coke.”
I’ve certainly heard it used in the generic in the south. There’s even a Facebook group dedicated to it. And a linguistic map about its usage (as well as the usage of “pop” and “soda.”)
Barbecue exists outside the South?
Restaurants tend to over sweeten their sweet tea.
A little sweetener brings out the tea flavor. I make it that way at home.
I rarely order sweet tea at restaurants. Some places it’s almost like syrup.
I didn’t imply you were a yankee. I simply said that your statement sounded just like that email a bunch of Yankees sent out 10 years ago. It contained, among other things, the idea that “y’all” is used in the singular.
Maybe things are different in your part of the South, I dunno. I’ve just never heard the phrase “what kind of Coke do you want” here in Coca-Cola’s backyard.
But even though I generically call it soda, i don’t order it that way. “Can I get a soda, please?” Nope. I just ask for the kind I want, and I assume that’s what most people do. You don’t start your dinner order by asking for an entree, do you? Of course not.
Give the guy a break, he’s from Labrador.