I bet those stats are tea tea, not counting herbal tea. And the vast majority of consumed tea leaves by weight, in the US, almost certainly go to iced tea, not hot tea as is common in other countries. (I guarantee "tea-drinking in the southern US" is more than 95% consumed-cold "sweet tea" or iced tea; even if you make that yourself—and it's very, very cheap to buy pre-made—it's about as easy to do it in a pot on the stove as to use a kettle)
> I bet those stats are tea tea, not counting herbal tea.
I think you're right. There is a table showing the popularity breakdown of the different types of tea, including herbal, but I think that's the global breakdown, not US.
It didn't provide a stat for it, but the page does remark that the majority of black tea consumed in the US goes to making iced tea.
Anecdotally, I'd noticed that tea vs. coffee seems to be generational. My wife and I drink tea at home while our parents prefer coffee (what coffee we have in the house is pretty much just for guests and some recipes that require it). Likewise, our siblings and their SOs seem to favor tea. My grandparents also tended to favor tea.
It sort of feels like a generational flip-flop thing to me between tea and coffee.
Curiosity got the better of me and I had to look this up. The US is the 35th most tea-drinking nation! And overall, there are slightly more male tea-drinkers than female. At least according to this site:
https://teahow.com/is-tea-popular-in-america-what-tea-they-d...
Also, looking at the age breakdown of US tea drinker perhaps explains the difference in our experiences. 18.5% of people in my age group (50+) drink tea. 46.2% of those in the 25-49 year age group drink tea.