For academic purposes, H generally uses the former Confederate States as the definition of the south: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Even though they share many cultural similarities, West Virginia and Kentucky don't make the cut.
But whatever. Sweet tea is awesome.
Yup, this is how my Southern Politics professor defined it. The 11 states of the old Confederacy. Once in a while he would discuss stats from Kentucky or even parts of Maryland, but he only considered the 11 states Harpy named as the South for his purposes.
Like BAMF, I don't think that the majority of Florida and Texas are culturally "south."
Yup, this is how my Southern Politics professor defined it. The 11 states of the old Confederacy. Once in a while he would discuss stats from Kentucky or even parts of Maryland, but he only considered the 11 states Harpy named as the South for his purposes.
Like BAMF, I don't think that the majority of Florida and Texas are culturally "south."
I was surprised by Floridians in college. The ones from Miami etc were definitely culturally southern but the most southern girl in my sorority was from somewhere in central Florida. I think it depends.
Yup, this is how my Southern Politics professor defined it. The 11 states of the old Confederacy. Once in a while he would discuss stats from Kentucky or even parts of Maryland, but he only considered the 11 states Harpy named as the South for his purposes.
Like BAMF, I don't think that the majority of Florida and Texas are culturally "south."
For voting behavior studies, though, I get why they draw the line there. You have to control for the South, and you need some objective criteria as to what is the South.
I'm as city as they come, but I consider Texas to be southern (although it certainly has its own culture). But maybe that's just because my dad has a Confederate flag (the political one, not the stars and bars) made out of fence posts adorning the front of his house and has artwork of Confederate generals in his house.
Yup, this is how my Southern Politics professor defined it. The 11 states of the old Confederacy. Once in a while he would discuss stats from Kentucky or even parts of Maryland, but he only considered the 11 states Harpy named as the South for his purposes.
Like BAMF, I don't think that the majority of Florida and Texas are culturally "south."
I agree with the Confederate states definition, and while I can't speak to Florida, I definitely think most of Texas is culturally Southern. There is no way Houston isn't in the South, and it's not on the map in the OP, though I agree it's hard to classify the whole massive state. There are towns in Southern Oklahoma that feel super Southern to me as well (people sitting on front porches drinking sweet tea while Confederate flags wave overhead).
I think this conversation is interesting bc it comes down to how you define the South and what makes something "Southern." Florida is obviously geographically more south than Georgia. Why is one considered more "Southern" than the other? I think there are parts of MD (not Baltimore, and not Western MD) that are more "southern" in feel but MD is in no way a southern state in my opinion (although we did want to secede.) I'm not saying X makes something southern - I'm just kind of rambling :-)
My professor talked about how one line of defining the south is by what states still had slaves during the Civil War. I think under this definition MD and KY might count? Not sure though.
There is most definitely sweet tea at McDonald's in WV, KY, and parts of OH.
This blog post is from August 2011. I wonder if McDonald's was only serving sweet tea in parts of the country at that time. Becuase it's definitely not limited to the South now - I've gotten sweet tea at McDonald's in Wisconsin.
There was def sweet tea at McD's in Sourthern California in 2008. I remember my SIL was on a sweet tea kick during our wedding.
Loo-uh-vull is not the South? Mint juleps, bourbon, Derby hats are happening outside the South? Oh ok. I don't care about New Albany and Jeffersonville lol, but Louisville is culturally very Southern. As is Bowling Green, Lexington and the rest of the state. I've lived in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the West Coast and different areas in the South and KY is seriously almost as Southern as Georgia in feel.
Yeah, I'm having a really hard time not including KY.
Is this your nice way of saying I misunderstood you?
I equate my responses to the attitude of the post in which I'm responding.
I am a nice person though, if that's what you're trying to tell me.
I'm sure you are a nice person, but you do seem very defensive about the classification of Louisville as being southern. If I misunderstood, I apologize.
What's the difference between sweet tea and regular iced tea? Is it just sweeter, or does it taste different?
Signed, New Jerseyan
Sweet tea has sugar. So it's sweet.
The sugar is added after brewing the tea, while it's still hot, so it actually dissolves in the tea instead of just a bunch of sugar sitting at the bottom of the glass.
It's amazing.
I love sweet tea but know I shouldn't drink it that often. So my solution is to keep a bottle of simple syrup in the fridge in order to make sweet tea one glass at a time.
Just to split hairs, I don't add the sugar after brewing the tea. Basically I put my tea bags in hot sugar water to steep and then add cold water if needed. Like this: www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-sweet-tea-94457
End result is the same, though. Yum. And I LOVE your solution for making it a glass at a time. That's a great idea since H hates sweet tea and I love it (but try not to drink it too often for health reasons).
I equate my responses to the attitude of the post in which I'm responding.
I am a nice person though, if that's what you're trying to tell me.
I'm sure you are a nice person, but you do seem very defensive about the classification of Louisville as being southern. If I misunderstood, I apologize.
Oh, I am so much more passionate about Louisville not being in the south than I should be. I don't even know why. I just work here. I could go on about it all day, but I won't because no one really wants to talk about the Civil War and pimiento cheese until 4:30.
A large number of things I say are in jest and it just doesn't come across too well in writing. My apologies for that.
Anyone who cares about tea (sweet or otherwise) should probably avoid Canada, lol. A fair number of places here serve iced tea, which is basically tea-flavoured kool aid (i.e. incredibly sweet and no real relation to brewed tea). And if you just ask for tea, you'd get hot tea.
My grandmother is from South Carolina and "sweet tea" was basically an Arnold Palmer (half tea and half lemonade, but really sweet lemonade, not tart lemonade). I didn't even count it as sweet tea but it's still delicious.
I grew up in WV and we always considered MD to be northern, even though it is below the Mason-Dixon Line. If you ask for unsweetened tea at home, you get a dirty look.
I don't like sweet tea, and being from Seattle I definitely don't have a dog in that fight. But I'm with Audette in think of TX as part of the South. I don't know when or why that started; maybe it's the accents?
Sweet tea is available at McD's in Minnesota, and has been for a number of years. So, that criteria clearly doesn't work.
I recently moved to central Ohio, and previous to moving here, I always thought of Ohio as a Midwestern state. Now that I'm here, it seems almost southern. I know it's not truly southern ... but for a Minnesota girl like me, it seems a little southern. I guess it didn't help that the moving crew that unloaded our truck here was the biggest bunch of rednecks I've ever seen in real life, that skewed my opinion right from the start.
In my mind, all of Kentucky is clearly southern. So is all of Arkansas.
I'm in PA, 30 miles directly north of Gettysburg. Sweet tea is widely available here. And I don't consider the hideousness that McDonald's serves to be sweet tea.
PA is obviously not south, so that map is definitely flawed.
FTR, the McDonald's around here have gross tea. It's always burnt tasting and fake sweet. It's also far sweeter than any sweet tea that I've had in the southern parts of VA.
PA is obviously not south, so that map is definitely flawed.
FTR, the McDonald's around here have gross tea. It's always burnt tasting and fake sweet. It's also far sweeter than any sweet tea that I've had in the southern parts of VA.
I don't like sweet tea, and being from Seattle I definitely don't have a dog in that fight. But I'm with Audette in think of TX as part of the South. I don't know when or why that started; maybe it's the accents?
Maybe it started when they joined the Confederacy? Seriously, I don't see how Texas is not the South. I am blocks from the state capitol right now, and I almost certain if I walked over there and started asking people if we are in the South, they would all say yes.
Florida is definitely the South. It has pockets of non-South (South Fla, Orlando, and Tampa for example), but for the most part, it's on par with the rest of the Confederate states.
I don't like sweet tea, and being from Seattle I definitely don't have a dog in that fight. But I'm with Audette in think of TX as part of the South. I don't know when or why that started; maybe it's the accents?
Maybe it started when they joined the Confederacy? Seriously, I don't see how Texas is not the South. I am blocks from the state capitol right now, and I almost certain if I walked over there and started asking people if we are in the South, they would all say yes.
I thought Texans were big on Texas being its own region/not associated with Georgia and the like. Maybe I know the wrong kind of Texans?
Maybe it started when they joined the Confederacy? Seriously, I don't see how Texas is not the South. I am blocks from the state capitol right now, and I almost certain if I walked over there and started asking people if we are in the South, they would all say yes.
I thought Texans were big on Texas being its own region/not associated with Georgia and the like. Maybe I know the wrong kind of Texans?
They are big on Texan superiority, but I have never felt like that keeps them from identifying as Southern, too. I have honestly never heard anyone from Texas try to claim that they aren't in the South, aside from maybe some Austinites that consider themselves culturally distinct from the rest of the state and the region. I am sure there are those in West Texas and on the Mexican border who might dispute it (and those areas really don't feel culturally Southern, so that makes sense to me), but I think everyone I know in Dallas or Houston if asked "do you live in the South?" would say yes.
I like this map. I would bring the line just a liiiiittle farther north,and add AK. You have to have the bootheel of MO in there, too.
You'd have to bring it a LOOOOT further north if you want to add AK. Yeah, what others said. Unless you were actually intending to mean Alaska, in which case, reading fail!