Tube City Almanac

August 17, 2005

Tea-ing Off on a Regional Taste

Category: default || By jt3y

Every so often, one of my colleagues walks past my desk and says, "Are you working in construction again?"

He's talking about the paper carton of iced tea (in my case, diet iced tea) that I sometimes buy to drink with my lunch. He thinks it's ... how do I put this? ... declasse.

Look, I'm a simple man with simple tastes. If I'm craving a 65-cent carton of iced tea, then by cracky, I'll have a 65-cent carton of iced tea. And me and the rest of the guys at the ironworkers' local don't appreciate the smart remarks.

But he's not the only one who's questioned my iced tea habit. A out-of-towner (a Noo Yawker, if you must know) once asked how Pittsburghers can drink "that stuff."

That makes me think that iced tea from a dairy is mainly a Pennsylvania thing, and more to the point, mainly a working-class and rural Pennsylvania thing. So, as I've traveled over the last year or so, I've made it a point to look for iced tea in dairy cases in stores, and guess what: You just don't see it in Ohio, Florida or the parts of Noo Yawk that I've visited. Lipton, Nestea or Snapple in glass bottles, yes, but not iced tea from the local dairy.

A quick Internet search (which is not "research," but you don't think I put a lot of time into these Almanacs, do you?) for "iced tea" and "dairy" turns up mostly references to Pennsylvania, including this article from a dairy trade magazine. As you might suspect, dairies in Pennsylvania started selling iced tea because they already had the infrastructure for packing milk; packaging tea allowed them to use the same equipment with little additional investment.

The article doesn't explain why it seems to be exclusively a Pennsylvania practice, or why Pennsylvanians drink so much of this stuff, but they do. The dairy stores and shop 'n robs around Our Fair City regularly run big sales in the summertime on iced tea in cartons, and people snap it up by the truckload. In my neighborhood, it's not uncommon to see people at my local (in)convenience store buying the stuff by the half-gallon.

Big business? I should say so. Turkey Hill Dairy in Lancaster, which recently moved into the Pittsburgh market, is running TV commercials specifically pushing its iced tea. According to this AP story, in 2003 Turkey Hill sold 24 million gallons of the stuff, making it the largest supplier of refrigerated iced tea in the country. That's pretty remarkable for a regional dairy, and I suspect most of the consumers are within two hours of Lancaster.

I wonder if the taste for cold, sweetened tea was brought to Pennsylvania by immigrants. Growing up, my grandmothers made something they called "hunky tea," which was tea with lots of lemon and honey or sugar. Could it be that dairies started bottling and packing iced tea to sell to thirsty steelworkers?

And appropriately enough, guess what's on display at International Village this year? Why, it's Turner Dairy's "Tea-Bird" --- a late '50s Ford Thunderbird painted to look like an iced tea carton.

All this isn't to say that other parts of the country, especially the South, don't love iced tea. Southerners call it "sweet tea," and very few restaurants (especially of the greasy spoon type) don't offer it, but I don't remember seeing iced tea in milk cartons in North Carolina, Virginia or anywhere else.

Johnstown's Galliker Dairy says it sells its iced tea in "parts of" Ohio, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina. Either this is a relatively recent development, or I'm not stopping in the right stores. The Winn-Dixie supermarket chain also apparently makes iced tea at its dairies. Could it be that expatriated Pittsburghers are taking their taste for iced tea with them as they move elsewhere? Is dairy-made iced tea about to become the next Western Pennsylvania delicacy about to go national, like the Klondike bar and Rolling Rock Beer?

And what, exactly, was my point today?

I don't know, but I sure am getting thirsty.






Your Comments are Welcome!

I have lived mostly not in Pennsylvania, and have not noticed iced tea in cartons anywhere else. But if you were to ask average American Joe what part of the country drank the most iced tea, I think the answer you’d get would be, “the south.” Not Pennsylvania. I am basing this on absolutely no research at all, and am often completely wrong on just about every one of my opinions. So this must be true.

To extend your pride in PA, you’ll be happy to hear that I once saw Rolling Rock in a club in northern England. I was, of course, aghast.
Jamin (URL) - August 17, 2005



i also reside in mckeesport and know about the local tea dependency. tea cartons can usually be found in the hands of adolescents just before they finish the refreshing beverage & throw the carton in the street or my yard while walking wherever it is they go instead of school. “dude, i need my tea.” i suspect the co-go’s at the crest of grandview is where they’re all coming from.

the turner dairy display would have been happily welcomed by my companion to international village had they been giving the stuff away rather than charging $1 for the plastic bottle (not even the cartons) of tea & something like $14 for a t-shirt. is turner dairy something i’m supposed to want to wear on my clothing? i didn’t know.
jet (URL) - August 17, 2005



A large vat of iced tea, made by dipping dozens of tea bags into boiling hot water and allowing it to cool, was de rigueur at large family gatherings when I was growing up. Strangely, I never developed a taste for it until I was an adult.

I’m sure no one cares.
Jonathan Potts (URL) - August 17, 2005



Wait … Turner Dairy is charging $14 for T-shirts (or would those be tea-shirts) with its logo? Ha ha ha! This I have to see.

(Besides, for only $2.50 more, you could have one with Rainbow Gardens printed on it: http://www.cafepress.com/tubecity.15098118 … ahem.)

Not long ago, Kerber Dairy in North Huntingdon was supplying iced tea and lemonade to International Village. I’m assuming that isn’t happening this year.
Webmaster (URL) - August 17, 2005



Hunky Tea! Beautiful!
This part-Hunky always liked it while working construction or landscaping. But it was always Turner’s. In comparison, nothing else was sweet enough.
Jonathan Barnes (URL) - August 17, 2005



Turkey Hill sells sweet tea (and lemonade) in small plastic cartons in Virginia, and Kroger sells it in gallon milk-style jugs. Winn-Dixie used to do the jugs as well, but there’s no Winn-Dixies here anymore. Still, the tea’s fairly popular, regardless of who makes it.

But tell me this: are the gallon jugs of Kool-Aid like drinks popular in your neck of PA? That’s a declasse delight. They’re all over the place here.
Steven Swain (URL) - August 17, 2005



A few years ago (1998, I think) I was on a ski trip to Colorado. Sometime in February, I believe.

I was all alone, without my parents, and I had recently turned 21. Every night I went to this fantastic little restaurant in Steamboat Springs that had a really good homemade brownie dessert, and each night I’d order a Rolling Rock or two. I couldn’t drink more because of the altitude; a single gin and tonic at the top of the mountain — while I was still strapped into my skis — turned out to be a Bad Idea.

Anyway, I ordered Rolling Rock because it was the only thing that I recognized on the menu. Everything else was either an in-house microbrew (way too strong) or something with a moose, trout, or deer on the label. One night, the waitress mentioned that they had “just started getting” the brand, and that everyone in town loved it.

I told them that I lived about 30 minutes away from Latrobe, where it was made.

The wait staff was in awe.

Then I told them that I also lived pretty close to the Stoney’s plant, which had also recently become a local favorite.

I ate for free that night.
pointy stick (URL) - August 18, 2005



i myself am stuck in this southern hell hole called tallahassee fl, im a recent transplant from mckeesport/elizebeth area of pittsburgh
there is sweet tea eveywhere here (and for some reason all the resturaunts. offer you “one to go” as you leave!) anyway, i consider my self a steel city iced tea conesur. my personal favorite is colteryhan iced tea (this is the one with the brown and white carton with the lemon on the side) second would be turners, then schnieders, then galkers, then deans. i have lived in many parts of the country (ok 3 ) and never have i seen iced tea consumed (blue collar or other) like pittsburgh. us pittsburghers drink a ton of it! last year working on a drill rig for gmi over the summer in college the driller and i would stop on the way to the site and buy 1 cup of coffee and 2-1/2 gallons of tea each every morning for $2 but, we werent the only ones eveyone in line some mornings had some sort of tea. wanna see iced tea madness go to the shop and go on 837 in west elizabeth they have a whole cooler devoted entirely to iced tea of the local persuasion. yet i digress, i miss my tea and i miss my city pittsburgh will always be home and as soon as some jobs return so will i. i wanna go home
ian - September 26, 2005



I was searching the Internet for sweet tea information tonight because I was surprised to learn that here in Georgia we add baking soda to our tea. I had no idea because my mom never did. Anyway, I remember drinking Turkey Hill tea, and you can hardly ever find anything like it here. Bottled tea is usually pretty bad.

Some of our state lawmakers recently proposed a bill as a joke that would have made it a misdemeanor for a restaurant to serve only unsweet tea but not sweet tea.
Adrian (URL) - January 20, 2006



I just read your article and found it interesting. I am originaly from York County, PA. I now live in Ohio and the tea here is terrible!!!!! I saw a sign not to far from my house advertising for Turkey Hill iced tea… but can’t find a store that sells it! Everytime I go home to PA, I try to stock up on gallon jugs of their tea because it is sooooo good! I guess I was spoiled in the snack capital and am missing it terrible! People out here don’t know what they are missing!!! If there is anyway to find a Turkey Hill supplier in Stark County Please let me know!!
Anandy - January 03, 2007



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