A tightly headed crisphead lettuce with cool, watery, mild leaves — the wedge-salad workhorse, the burger-topping standard, and the most-shipped lettuce in the U.S.
Why “iceberg”
The name comes from how it was originally shipped from California growing fields to the East Coast in the 1920s — packed in railroad cars heaped with crushed ice that made the cargo look like floating icebergs. The name stuck even after refrigerated trucks made the ice unnecessary.
A bad reputation, partially earned
Iceberg gets dismissed in food circles for being watery and mild — it has the lowest vitamin and antioxidant content of major lettuces. That’s true. But iceberg has unique virtues no other lettuce can match: a crackling crunch that survives heavy dressing, structural integrity for wedge salads, and cold-water cooling on a hot day. The wedge salad with bacon and blue cheese is iceberg-only — every other lettuce collapses.
A monoculture story
A handful of varieties dominate U.S. iceberg production, with Salinas Valley in California growing most of the country’s supply. Almost all iceberg in supermarkets traces back to a few cultivars selected for shipping durability rather than flavor.
Find more vegetables by letter
Iceberg Lettuce starts with I and ends with E. Browse other vegetables along the same letter.
Vegetables that contain a letter from "Iceberg Lettuce":