The big thing in Southern restaurants these days is half/half tea. It just means that you want the waitress to pour half of the insanely sweet southern ice tea into your glass and then pour unsweetened tea to fill up the glass. My husband asks for it all the time while I still enjoy pure unsweetened ice tea. I think this started as an attempt for people to cut down on their sugar intake, but considering all the other unhealthy carbs people eat down here, I doubt it makes any difference.
Some also drink fruited ice teas in the south, like peach tea for example. Do they drink fruited ice teas anywhere else? The tea is still a combo of regular old ice tea mixed with a fruit syrup, usually available sweet or unsweetened.
We have a bakery/restaurant in south Jersey tht infuses their tea with fruit extract and real fruit chunks. One time it was orange, then whenever strawberries, blueberries r peaches are in season, cu the bakery goes to local growers for them, they make that. To me, I'd rather have processed ice tea because they get the lemon and sugar just right so I don't gag on the aftertaste nor do I take in too much of the "tea taste".
I can't drink coffee because it causes bad things to happen to my nerves and speech patterns, but only like tea ice and from specific companies like Arizona Inc.
I could never stand it hot even with lots of sugar and lemon to hide behind.
And yet I HATE southern sweet tea, tastes like they put nothing in it. Most here who make that or sun tea, even when they grew up down south, serve it weird, like still lukewarm weird.
The tea has a smoky, aromatic, taste and I liked it with a slice of lemon. 
