Growing up in Milwaukee, I didn't know anyone who drank tea, outside of occasional yum cha (dim sum) in Chicago. We drank beer instead.
Now, I'm not saying that you're wrong. I'm a New Yorker that went to school in western Massachusetts so I know those two cultures very well. Not so much about The Great Lakes midwest. I think the map is meant to reflect economics as much as cultures though and certainly the St. Lawrence Seaway and Eerie Canal shipping routes, as well as the major railroads in the region, have established very strong economic ties between Yankeedom and the Great Lakes region.
Founded by Puritans, residents in Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest tend to be more comfortable with government regulation. They value education and the common good more than other regions.
That fits Minneapolis to me, but maybe not so much the rest of the upper midwest, and not even all of (rural) Minnesota. I think it's less about culture and more about community spirit and civic-mindedness. For example, in the recent NYT map of "Life expectancy of 40-year-olds with household incomes below $28,000, adjusted for race"[2], Minnesota and the northeast look fairly similar (along with Washington and Oregon). Or look at Presidental election results.
Wisconsin used to fit this, but is drifting apart from Minnesota, as discuss in this piece[3].
[1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/w...
[2]: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/11/upshot/for-the...
[3]: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/opinion/sunday/right-vs-le...
I'll have to read the book...maybe he makes a clearer argument than in this map, or is selecting on some variable I'm not seeing.
I've also lived in south Georgia (a little over a year) and Seattle (4 years), and have traveled those areas extensively. Those parts of the map definitely ring true to me, especially the "left coast" designation for the PNW (a lot of my friends in Seattle jokingly called it that) and the "New France" designation for the NOLA area.
I'll definitely be checking this book out - thanks for the recommendation.