Lindsey Nair

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To sweeten or not to sweeten?

That was the question -- or at least the main question -- we asked readers in an online poll about iced tea.

I commissioned the poll in mid-July because I've always been fascinated by how iced tea fits into individual life experiences. Some have it as a staple in the refrigerator while others only drink it as a special occasion beverage on the hottest summer days.

Some like it sweet, some don't. Those who like it sweet differ in the degree of sweetness they prefer, from just enough to take the bitter edge off to near-syrup consistency.

I wondered if the North/South dividing line applied to iced tea preferences. I also wondered what age had to do with it, if anything, and whether the introduction of bottled teas has influenced how we drink iced tea in America.

Let me just tell you right now that when the poll ended and data delivery editor Matt Chittum crunched the numbers, the Earth did not move.

We did not spring from our seats and rip off our glasses and exclaim that we had tapped black gold.

Basically, we confirmed a stereotype: Southerners love sweet tea; Northerners, not so much.

If there's any gold to be had in Roanoke, it seems, it's the amber refreshment that we tend to prefer home-brewed, not out of a bottle.

Oh, and Diet Dr Pepper. But I'll get back to that later.

'Teasearch' lowdown

We got 292 responses to our poll on Roanoke.com. If you follow polls, you know that's not a very big number and therefore our poll can't be called scientific.

It can still be called interesting.

First, we asked people where they spent the majority of their formative years. Of the 76 folks from Roanoke who took the poll, 92 percent like their tea sweetened. Of the 188 people from Virginia who took the poll, 89 percent like sweet tea.

We got responses from 32 Northerners -- 28 percent of whom drink sweet tea and 62 percent unsweet (a few didn't answer that question for some reason). Of the 229 Southerners who took the poll, 87 percent liked sweet tea.

For our study, the North was considered to be any state north of the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi River. Those parameters are surely arguable to some, especially those from Maryland, West Virginia and Florida.

But consider this: I hear a lot of West Virginians argue that they are not in the South. Still, 84 percent of the West Virginians in our study liked sweet tea. Those are pretty Southern tastes, y'all.

We split respondents into two other groups, as well: under 40 and over 40. We picked that age because 40 was the median age of our poll-takers, who ranged from 16 to 85.

Is the younger set more likely to drink sweet tea? Just slightly, but the difference is not significant enough to make any conclusion other than lots of people prefer sweetened tea, regardless of age.

Of the under-40 set, 81 percent liked sweet tea. Of the over-40 set, 77 percent liked sweet tea.

Finally, what about that staple versus occasional treat issue?

A whopping 217 poll-takers (out of 292, remember, with a handful not answering the question) had it as a staple while just 56 called it an occasional treat. Not surprisingly, those who have iced tea as a staple in their homes are more likely to drink it sweet.

A broader picture

Because our pool of respondents was so low, I went to The Roanoke Times marketing department to see if it had any broader data on the consumption of iced tea by city, state or the nation as a whole.

Marketing director Molly Bell was kind enough to pull some numbers from surveys conducted over the past few years by Scarborough Research. Among other things, this national research company looks at consumer shopping habits.

While they didn't have information about iced tea consumption, Scarborough could tell us about bottled tea consumption.

In Roanoke, we don't drink a lot of bottled tea. In fact, with the exception of Lynchburg, most major cities in Virginia don't rate very high in bottled tea consumption.

I can only hope that's because we Southerners know the best iced tea is freshly brewed. When we do drink it bottled, the research shows, we like Arizona brand. But then, so does everyone else in the country.

Iced tea purists take heart: Over the past five years, there's been no significant rise in the sales of bottled tea locally or nationally, according to Scarborough.

Oddly enough, while Roanoke ranks 85th out of 110 cities for bottled tea consumption, we have a higher ranking for Diet Dr Pepper consumption.

Ahem, I'm talking very high.

According to Scarborough, Roanokers ranked third in the nation for having had a Diet Dr Pepper within the past seven days.

Note to self: commission soda survey.

Lindsey Nair's column runs in Wednesday's Extra.