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From: Claire Keenan Agthe <>
Subject: Re: [APG] APG Digest, Vol 3, Issue 140--Soda vs Pop
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:31:36 -0500
References: <d10.1e9025c6.34f48dd7@aol.com><5AE5F901-6507-4233-8C33-358ED11CAE2C@comcast.net><47C42501.9080002@etxquest.com>
In-Reply-To: <47C42501.9080002@etxquest.com>


On Feb 26, 2008, at 9:41 AM, Debbie Parker Wayne wrote:

> Claire Keenan Agthe wrote on 2/26/2008 8:22 AM:
>
>> Now, don't get me started on tea -- though, let me
>> just say, Southerners really do tea right...
>> understanding that putting the sugar in while it's steeping
>> makes it taste (and melt) so much better than adding it after it's
>> cold.
>
> I grew up in Dallas, Texas and worked in restaurants when I was
> young. Back
> then we never pre-sweetened the tea. I moved from Arizona back to East
> Texas in 2000. I almost spit out the tea the first time I ordered
> it after
> I got back and it was pre-sweetened. Now I remember to ask for
> unsweetened tea.
>
> I got a funny look from the waitress in Kenosha, Wisconsin when I
> asked for
> unsweetened tea. But in Jamaica they also have unsweetened or pre-
> sweetened
> tea. I wondered if it was a Jamaica thing, maybe a climate thing in
> hotter
> areas, or because they have so many tourists from the southern U.S.



The first person I ever knew who pre-sweetened the tea (put in the
sugar with the tea bags before pouring in the boiling water) was my
sister's first mother-in-law. All I know about her is that she lived
in the SW suburbs of Phila., but I don't know where her people were
from or where she picked up that habit (that, or leaving the butter
out of the refrigerator to keep it soft, except in extreme heat).
Once I had iced tea steeped that way, I saw the light -- but it's
been years since I routinely drank sweetened tea, so I rarely make it
that way myself.

The first time I ever had a waitress ask "sweetened or unsweetened"
was on my first trip down South, and it impressed me greatly. Sadly,
I do usually order unsweetened, so I don't quite fit in down South
(though tea drinking habits are probably the least of it). When I
was growing up in the Phila. area, ordering "tea" meant hot tea, and
"iced tea" meant cold -- and, either way, you got tea and separate
lemon or milk (milk, just with hot tea, before you recoil in horror)
and sugar so you could mix it however you wished. A few years ago, I
noticed if I ordered (hot) tea, I was usually asked "milk or
lemon?" (presumably, a cost cutting measure, so they don't waste any
cut-up lemons) and learned to say "neither." Lately, waitresses seem
to think plain tea is "black" (like coffee would be), but, of course,
black tea is a type of tea, different from the usual US orange pekoe
(Lipton, Tetley, Salada, etc.). Somewhere along the line, I noticed
that some waitresses would ask "hot or cold" when I ordered "tea," so
I just got in the habit of ordering "hot tea" or "iced tea" to
forestall the question. Probably just within the last year, I'm
starting to see (but rarely) menus (and waitresses) specifying
"sweetened or unsweetened," so maybe a little Southern culture is
coming north!

Claire

Claire Keenan Agthe
Bloodlines Genealogical Research Service
7231 Town Court South
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648-4729

http://www.bloodlines.biz





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