Lindsey Nair

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Growing up in Illinois, my mother got iced tea only on special occasions, when the heat of summer steered thoughts toward porch swings, barefoot children and tall, sweating glasses of something cold.

In dad's Southwest Virginia household, there was always a pitcher of iced tea in the refrigerator, no matter what the season.

To me, the difference has always seemed as logical as that other North/South tea divide -- to sweeten or not to sweeten? But the more I talk to co-workers, friends, family and readers, the more I wonder how long the old American tea identities can hold up.

Before we get into my preliminary "teasearch," let us go as far back in time as iced tea itself. This is a little tricky because it's not possible to say exactly when iced tea was invented.

There was no Earl of Tea who accidentally spilled his hot tea into a bucket of chipped ice. A common belief that iced tea first emerged during the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair has been patently disproven. Several American cookbooks exist in university collections that date earlier than the fair and contain recipes for iced teas.

Fred Thompson, author of the 2002 recipe book "Iced Tea," says he believes cold tea can be traced back to the well-to-do planters and sea captains of late 1700s Charleston, S.C.

"Cool tea also became very much a part of alcohol history, too," Thompson said. "They would blend tea with a little bit of sugar with their red wine, and then there is a thing called St. Cecilia's punch, which is legendary to Savannah [Ga.]."

St. Cecilia's punch is made with sweet tea, brandy, rum and fruit juices.

Thompson's research suggests that Southerners may have invented iced tea, or at least launched its consumption in this country. He believes iced tea, and sweet tea in particular, is primarily a Southern thing because it complements Southern cuisine. The tannins in tea cut the greasiness of fried foods, he said, and the sugar cuts the vinegar in barbecue dishes.

But two of the earliest known cookbooks that contain recipes for iced tea were not only written by Northern women, they included sugar.

The library at Michigan State University has an 1877 cookbook called "Buckeye Cookery" by Estelle Woods Wilcox of Ohio that contains an early recipe for iced tea. Wilcox's recipe begins, "Prepare tea in the morning, making it stronger and sweeter than usual; strain and pour into a clean stone jug or glass bottle, and set aside in the ice-chest until ready to use."

Sweeter than usual? In the North?

This is when my preconceived notions began to dissolve.

The 'teasearch'

Last month, I wrote a blog entry in honor of National Iced Tea Month. It spurred such a healthy, passionate discussion that I was motivated to dig deeper.

I sent out an e-mail poll to newsroom colleagues that contained these questions:

1. Where did you spend the majority of your formative years?

2. In your household, was iced tea a staple or an occasional treat?

3. When you drank iced tea, was it sweetened or unsweetened?

4. Where did your mother (or the primary iced tea-maker in your household) spend the majority of her formative years?

Forty-two colleagues responded to my survey. I decided to label them as Northern, Southern and "other," using the Mason-Dixon Line as my north/south divide and the Mississippi River as the western boundary.

I know this will seem a little problematic to those who would argue, with good cause, that neither Florida nor Maryland count as Southern states, or that the Mississippi is too far west to be the end of the North and South. But bear with me as this is obviously not a scientific poll.

Here are some of the most interesting findings:

• Out of 26 Southerners, 16 had iced tea as a staple in their homes growing up. Seventeen always drank it sweet.
• Of 10 Northerners, only two had iced tea in the home on a regular basis. Six said it was an occasional treat and two said they either never had it or drank "tea" from a powdered mix.
• Of the six colleagues who fell in the "other" group, meaning they grew up west of the Mississippi River, none had iced tea as a staple in their homes. Five had it as an occasional treat, and one never had it at all.

Those results weren't particularly surprising, but check this out:

• Seven Southerners drank iced tea only as a special treat. Three never had it at all.
• Seven Southerners never drank sweet tea growing up, only unsweetened tea.
• Two Northerners drank sweet tea all the time.

So while I concede that Southerners generally drink more iced tea and are more likely than Northerners to sweeten it, the anomalies in my survey results piqued my interest.

As our culture becomes more mixed -- either through marriage or relocation-- is the divide dissolving?

Increased travel, as well as the growth of bottled teas and restaurants such as McDonald's, which now serves sweet tea in the North, could be other factors in this homogenization of the American iced tea identity.

Now that I'm perched on the precipice of complete iced tea geekdom, I might as well plunge headlong into my research.

We have posted this iced tea poll in the hopes that readers will answer questions about their own experiences with this iconic beverage.

When the results are in, database editor Matt Chittum and I will attempt to make sense of it all with some maps and graphs, which I will share in a later column.

So pour yourself a tall glass of iced tea, ponder your childhood and log on to take the survey. You could be part of some groundbreaking research -- or at least help us have a little fun.

Old-school recipes

From “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” by Fannie Merritt Farmer, published in Boston in 1896: Scald an earthen or china teapot. Put in tea, and pour on boiling water. Let stand on back of range or in a warm place five minutes. Strain and serve immediately, with or without sugar and milk. Avoid second steeping of leaves with addition of a few fresh ones. If this is done, so large an amount of tannin is extracted that various ills are apt to follow.

From “Housekeeping in Old Virginia” by Marion Fontaine Cabell Tyree, published in Richmond in 1878: After scalding the teapot, put into it one quart of boiling water and two teaspoonfuls green tea. If wanted for supper, do this at breakfast. At dinner time, strain, without stirring, through a tea-strainer into a pitcher. Let it stand till tea time and then pour into decanters, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the pitcher. Fill the goblets with ice, put two teaspoonfuls granulated sugar in each, and pour the tea over the ice and sugar. A squeeze of lemon will make this delicious and healthful, as it will correct the astringent tendency.