Two general questions will be considered in this paper. First, when and why did people of the American “Deep South,” the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, part of South America, the Mediterranean, and even those as far away as central and southern India, long-time traders with the Northeastern United States, decide to make demands on those Yankee shippers for ice, and how did alcohol fit into this demand. Surely, many people living in these year-around warm to hot locales had traveled to New York or Boston and enjoyed a cold glass of beer or wine or whiskey during a blistering hot Northern summer. Had a New Orleans cotton merchant or a Caribbean sugar cane planter taken a thirst for “a nice cold one” back home with him? The answer lies less in “Southern” tastes than in “Yankee” ingenuity.
The second question involves what might be called the “ripple effect” needed to capitalize on a cultural development, such as that described in the preceding paragraph. What was the “ripple effect” in New England, New York, and the Upper Midwest in meeting the demand for cold drinks by people in warm places? Ultimately, heavy industry developed to supply ice to the “South,” with each heavy industry in turn leading to additional heavy industry.