If you ask for "tea" at a restaurant, what happens and where do you live?
In the South East, they bring you sweetened (usually far too sweetened for my tastes) iced tea. This is amazingly universal.
I live in NC and have been probing the border for years.
For "nicer" restaurants, the universal sweet tea boundary seems to be precisely at the NC/VA border.
They ask what kind of tea I want - black, green etc and bring a cup of it together with sugar so I can add it to the tea if I want.
Europe.
Can confirm for Switzerland. It'll probably be some crappy tea bag quality, like lipton yellow or Twinings. They'll also probably charge you 4-6 CHF (about the same in USD) for it.
Same, although it'll probably be served in a little teacup (about 2 cup's worth) with a generic teabag in it. There may be a small pot of hot water on the side.
(Europe as well)
In the better restaurants and cafes they will bring you a cup of boiled water and a box of different kinds of tea bags from which you can pick one. (The Netherlands)
I would say, good restaurants and cafes do not serve tea in bags :) but this is already details, anyway you get a tea, not a soda called "ice tea".
Which country?
This can vary wildly per European country, after all.
Germany, Austria, Sweden, Niederlande etc.
Excuse me what did you just call us?
Nah, I jest.
In all seriousness, thanks for adding the list.
I swear it's not me, it's my smartphone. We will have a serious conversation with it about this!
When you said south east I was thinking south east Asia and was trying to decipher what countries NC and VA were, until I realised you were American expecting everyone else to be American and understand American state codes.
I went through exactly the same thought process...
That's okay, I'm an American and interpreted South East as South East Asia too.
I don't normally see the space when referring to the Southeastern US, only for South East Asia. I have no idea why that is and have never really thought about it.
Expecting everyone to know the US states is just us getting revenge on Europe for demanding we keep track of which products are named after geographic regions and which are just recipes immigrants from those places brought to America.
If you’re not in Europe, sorry you got caught up in our couple’s spat.
India, You'll get properly boiled tea with milk (called chai) unless you specifically ask for black/ red tea which you'll only get in Kerala (called black/kattan ) & in our NorthEastern states (called red tea/lal cha). Tea is by default served hot unless you ask for iced tea which is just tea-coloured flavoured sugar water made with a premix.
The 2nd best way to piss off an Indian is to serve tea brewed with teabags, the best to upset us is to serve tea brewed with teabags and using powdered milk.
We like our tea to be boiled with milk, water, spices, and sugar/jaggery. If you want to make our day, boil the tea with condensed milk, water, and spices and watch us beam. The spices will always be fresh and any combo of sweet cardamom, ginger, cloves, star anise, pinch of cinnamon, lemongrass, black pepper, fennel seeds,
In Kashmiti homes/ restaurants, you'll get the saffron flavoured Kehwa (no milk in this one, but lots of flavour) and the pink colored salt tea (noon chai) made with green tea leaves, milk, rock salt, cardamom, pistachios, almonds. and baking soda.
I am salivating. I’ve not been to India, but I’ve been made a boiled chai by an Indian at a community dinner in my area and it was absolutely sublime.
Glad you liked it. Tea is very serious with us and it should be boiled. Teabag tea is just warm dishwater in comparison.
A compliment on tea (chai achchi bani - the tea is made well) is huge and will make you a favouite & repeat guest.
Try to get your hands on loose Assam CTC black tea or (even better) loose Nilgiris CTC black tea. and go to town experimenting with spices and sweeteners (karupatti/palm jaggery adds a new dimension of flavour). Nilgiris tea is forgiving and doesn't get astringent if you overboil it, while Assam will teach you a lesson in bitterness. Darjeeling is all flavour but lacks oomph (or as Indians say 'not strong enough' ). With spices, a little goes a long way. The spices should be crushed and added to the water right in the beginning so they can boil and infuse their flavour. Another trick is to close the lid and let it sit for 1-2 mins after taking it off the flame and before serving.
In the US there is very high quality tea available in bags. It’s not automatically indicative of worse quality.
You should try more loose leaf teas.
The bag itself will limit the leaf length, and both bagging, transport and storage in the bag degrades teas at a very accelerated rate.
See if you can find a tea with at least 4 cm (half a finger length, or about 1.5") leaf length and compare, preferably with an enthusiast brewing it to get the most flavor out of it. A popular variant is Silver needles.
That's where you'll start getting complex and changing flavor profiles from the tea itself, it's not for everyone, but well worth a try.
It isn't just the quality of the tea leaf/ powder in the teabag that is being called out, The method of brewing tea ruins it all. Proper tea (is theft, We all laughed, including the toaster) is made by boiling tea leaves/ CTC tea/ dust tea in water or water + milk not by dunking a teabag or 2 in a cup of tepid water for a few seconds, and then topping it with an even more tepid milk.
The Chinese brew lovely tea using loose tea leaves because the water they use is boiling hot and in a teapot, which lets the tea release its flavours quickly, and of course they don't add milk.
You can try out all methods and compare the results. Of course, if you try loose leaf tea, you might not go back to tea bags.
An advantage of loose tea is you can customize your tea blend. Eg, blend Assam and Darjeeling in 1:1 ratio for a balanced tea of strength and flavour, 1:2 for a more flavourful tea with a decent body, 2:1 for an aromatic tea that can kick like a mule. A Ceylon tea blend of nuwara Eliya tea & Kandy tea is a balm for a tired heart.
In the UK they bring you dinner
Netherlands: you get asked what kind, or hot water with a box teabags to pick from.
Iced tea is a seperate thing entirely.
Ordering tea and getting hot water and teabags in return is my restaurant pet peeve. It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother unless I know they'll actually bring me a pot of already-brewed tea.
Why?
I'm from the US and I don't order hot tea in a place that might do this. I wouldn't trust them to make it, either, though. My reason is that the water they'd bring just isn't going to be hot enough to steep with.
I love black tea steeped in water that started close to boiling when the tea was added and poured (or teabags removed) before the bitter tannins get too strong. Even cheap black tea can be decent if it's brewed well.
If they bring me a pot of water, it probably came from the hot water thing on their coffee maker and it already started not hot enough even before they put it in a non-insulated metal pot. If it were hot enough, I'd actually prefer to put the bag in myself so I know when to take it out.
On average, folks in my country have never even had hot tea brewed well, and I think that bad tea is worse than bad coffee.
If I'm in, say, an Asian place, I'd be more likely to order tea since I reckon the staff are more likely to know how good it can be and how to make it.
Because I don't want to have to prepare my own drinks; that's why I came to a restaurant instead of eating at home.
Calling dropping a tea bag in a cup of hot water "preparing a drink" is a bit of a stretch
well you also have to take it out
That is true
Do you also need someone to pour it in your mouth?
I don't think it's bizarre to expect that my food be in ready-to-eat condition when it's served, why should drinks be any different?
You're getting downvoted, but I can relate (even if I never drink tea while out.). It isn't much work to let it steep, then take the tea bag out, but it's not about the literal work, but the brain energy involved. My short term memory is trash, so I often forget about drinks; I had to learn to enjoy lukewarm or cold coffee, otherwise I would rarely drink coffee.
For me, the water is always too cold to properly steep tea from by the time they bring it.
Malaysia is fun for this. Just asking for tea (teh) will get you a hot sweet milk tea, if you want no milk you ask for "teh-O". If you want no milk AND no sugar you ask for a " teh-O kosong", kosong basically meaning empty. Then of course there are the ice variants like "teh-O ais kosong". So basically the default is getting everything except ice, then you add modifiers to take things out.
But tea language strangeness aside, Malaysian teh-tarik (pulled tea) is amazing and should get more global attention. Even the preparation can be quite a show and there are local competitions.
Netherlands. You'd get a glass or cup of hot water, and a box of tea bags to select from. If you want ice tea, you explicitly have to call that out. Just "tea" refers to the hot (original) version without sugar.
Same in Hungary.
"Black, green, peppermint, chamomile, melissa, ginger?"
10 minutes later you get a hot cup with a bag in it, no clue how long it's been sitting in there already. Usually a bag of sugar and/or a cookie on the saucer.
Germany.
I knew it was Germany from the selection alone. Might want to add Earl grey, if the restaurant is feeling adventurous
Also Germany: The place where I drink tea has a seperate tea menu of several pages.
In Spain they will immediatelly ask you if you are sick. Only sick people drink tea there, or english tourists, but they will usually go to english bars anyway. In those places they will serve black tea and ask you if you want it with lemon or milk.
Now that is interesting.
Wow that is not true at all.
I'm happy to get conviced otherwise but in my 26 years living in Spain, Valencia and Andalucia, that was what I have experienced.
In Australia - you might get asked what type of tea. There's usually about 10 types of the menu from the usual English Breakfast or Early Grey to Chai, green or some other more fruity variants. It may come in a pot, or a cup, or a mug, depending on the sophistication of the joint. You'll usually be asked "cup or mug?".
And in Australia, they're pretty good about knowing which teas need sugar and or milk and usually bring that separately to the table for you to apply the way you want. Other times they'll ask "how many sugars and how much milk"?
Everywhere else in the world they either bring woefully too little milk, or can't even begin to understand the concept of milk in your tea. (mainland Europe and Asia mostly).
Hong Kong. It depends on the establishment.
In big Cantonese restaurants, tea is the very first thing you have to choose, and you are expected to know what tea varieties there are. They then brew and bring you the tea in a white porcelain pot, and can top it up with water upon request (or do it yourself since water is always served alongside the tea). I generally like 鐵觀音, but my dad prefers 普洱. The tea is unsweetened, and if you ask for it sweetened or put sugar in it, well idk what happens but you'd probably get laughed at and kicked out.
In smaller diners, you often can pick the type of tea you want from a menu, though those are often not traditional Chinese teas, and are hot and sweetened by default, though you can always ask for it unsweetened or iced. Milk tea is always available (I can only assume under threat of public boycott). Depending on the diner, various fruit teas would also be available.
LOL! Clever of them to use tea as an identity test. Quite like Ukrainians asking suspected Russians to pronounce 'Palyanytsia'.
Shibboleth
Yes! That was the word I was looking for!
Thank you.
I still want to visit Hong Kong but don't have the budget atm, and that first paragraph isn't helping
Also, 鐵觀音 (Tie Guan Yin) is also my favourite tea, that's a coincidence!
Norway. It depends, but you'd probably be served a cup of hot water with a box of assorted tea bags.
Same in Sweden.
Same in amarica tho from what I'm hearing from states that aren't Vermont I'm a little scared that I'm now living in Florida for college
As a Canadian (and probably for the rest of the world) this is the weirdest question. Why would someone serve sweetened iced tea before serving just tea? Why does so much shit come full of sugar?
I read this comment and choked my nestea I'm drinking right now for breakfast. 29g of sugar... It just tastes so good, I'm addicted. Plz send help!
I had an iced cap from Timmies for the first time in 7 years and I don't recall it being so sweet. But you are right, everything is fully loaded with sugar nowadays
There was a time when my day started with a French vanilla and a glazed sour cream donut every day. I haven't really eaten much fast food in the last decade but I had that combo again on vacation this year and it was like chasing a bloc of sugar with pure syrup. How did I do it?
Americans in general don't drink "tea" they drink coffee. Could be left over from revolution when tea became a symbol of British oppression.
We don't drink tea in the same way as the British, but sweet tea is an extremely common drink in the south-east us. It's almost certainly the top drink after soda and water.
In my experience they don't drink coffee either, rather than over-roasted bitter tarmac
I'm watching my spending and figured I'd buy the "fruity light roast" from the grocery store and it tastes like what I imagine drinking an ashtray would taste like.
From someone who once drank an ashtray on a pub bet, I've definitely drank some worse coffees.
I'm pretty certain it's because it's so damn hot a humid in the SE US. Sweat tea is a good way to cool down and get some sugar for energy. I'd guess it mostly replaced Switchel, and it's now pretty much the standard tea drink. If you're outside, you almost certainly don't want hot tea.
In Vietnam, if it's a café they'd ask you hot or cold.
Normal restaurants you'd get iced tea, usually very strong unsweetened Lipton yellow label.
Cincinnati Ohio, they'd ask you if you meant sweet or unsweetened iced tea
Tea would be an unusual drink to ask for in a restaurant (as opposed to a cafe) unless they do breakfast/brunch, or you were partaking of "afternoon tea" (a rare treat for the ordinarily incomed).
If it was "afternoon tea" you would be offered a menu of different teas to choose from and it would be served with a tiered tray of finger sandwiches and pastries. And you would be charged a ridiculous amount of money for what is basically a small picnic.
If you were ordering tea as a drink in a restaurant, it would most likely come in a small teapot (with a teabag unless it was a very posh place), possibly some extra boiling water to refresh the pot after you've poured some tea, a cup and saucer, a small jug of milk, and a bowl of white sugar or sugar cubes (or a selection of packets of sugar or sweetener if it was not such a posh place).
If you asked for tea in a cafe, depending on how fancy the cafe is, it might look similar to the restaurant offering, or it might be a teabag in a mug of boiling water, pots of UHT milk, and packets of sugar.
No one would ever assume you wanted iced tea unless you specified it. And if you did specify it, they would most likely look blank and say they couldn't do it. I can't recall ever seeing it on a menu. Hot tea would be providable by any establishment whether or not it was on the menu because pretty much every kitchen in the UK has teabags in it.
I assume this is in England/the UK? From the last sentence?
Texas - you'll get a cup filled with sugar, sugar, ice, sugar, water that was barely run through some tea leaves, and sugar. I always specify unsweet tea.
How close are you to the nearest buccees?
There is one 2 exits north of me. Less than a 10 minute drive.
Lucky!
Sadly, it more of a nuisance than anything else to me now. It's like I just want to get to Home Depot and now I have to sit through the traffic it causes 24/7/365.
Also, as they continue to expand, it feels like the mystique is wearing off. They used to only be in the middle of nowhere and are a welcome site when traveling 4+ hours between major cities. When I'm just trying to get around town, I'd rather just go to and normal gas station, I can just pull in fill up and be on my way, without having to navigate a sea of pumps and people all over the place.
In Texas, they would ask whether you want sweet or unsweet and you'd get a glass of iced tea. The closer you are to Louisiana, the sweeter the tea.
You have to specify hot tea, if that's what you want.
Same in Missouri. It used to be that they'd assume sweet tea, but that's changed in the past 10 years.
Southern US — get black tea, iced. Sometimes asked for sweeter preference.
Hot tea is never on the menu, except for tea houses.
I'm in Georgia and if you ask for tea you usually get asked "sweet or unsweet".
The blueberry leaf tea grown in Georgia is one of the tastiest teas I've tried. Whenever I've been to the Adjara region it's always on the boil, ready to drink.
The other comments and this have me confused whether they meant the European country or the US state.
Midwest is generally this way too, but some only have sweet tea.
What kind of restaurants are you going to?
That is the complete opposite of my experience.
that's my experience in Georgia
US West: you get unsweetened iced tea unless they have hot and then they’ll ask. You can only get sweet tea at certain places and chains like McDonalds and Chick-fil-a.
I used to be a southern sweet iced tea drinker but now prefer unsweet.
German here. Unless you specify WHICH type of tea you want, you don't get any. But once you cleared that up, you usually get a cup of hot water with the tea bag (unopened) and 1-2 small packs of sugar, plus maybe a small cookie.
Is the cookie any good?
Not really IMHO. They're usually Mürbeteigplätzchen - dry, plain, only slightly sweet, with a sandy, coarse texture. They're meant to be dunked into the tea to soften them, but I dislike having squishy crumbs floating around in my drinks, so either way those cookies just aren't for me.
EDIT:
These are pretty common.
I assume it's a digestive biscuit, but I'm also interested.
They’ll probably bring a sad cup of water that used to be boiling and a Lipton tea bag. NYC, USA.
You get shown where the hot water and teabags are, go do it for yourself, we're all peasants in Sweden.
IKEA moment (yes, I also had a free cup of tea courtesy of my IKEA Family membership)
If you ask for it at a particular restaurant you will receive a tea pot full of beer, the restaurant is not authorized to sell alcohol. It’s an open secret.
Here in Estonia you'll get asked what kind of tea (black, green etc) you want (restaurants here usually have several kinds of it). It's assumed you want hot tea unless you specifically ask for iced.
In this chunk of the Southern Cone they'll probably assume that you want this:
Cold and sweetened yerba mate tea, often flavoured with lemon or peach. It's actually quite good, preferable over soda.
Brazil?
Yup. I'm not sure if the same tea +→ cold yerba mate tea implication applies elsewhere in Brazil though; in some places I'd expect a "this is a restaurant, if you want tea go back home" or similar, dunno.
Dim sum restaurant will ask you what kind
Pu-er, iron goddess, chrysanthemum, oolong, saumei, etc.
In a better place, I usually get a menu with a number of different teas (Ceylon, Assam, Darjeeling, Green, several fruit and herbal teas), which will be served hot and unsweetened, of course.
In a lesser place, I might get a selection of only two or three teas, usually a black breakfast blend, a green tea or Earl Gray, and maybe a mint tea as a herbal variant.
I live in Europe.
South East? Is that like... India? Just say so, why so cryptic? Idk what cities in India NC and VA mean either, just use geographical names, common, can't know every city or province or whatever everywhere around the planet.
They're in the US. NC is North Carolina and VA is Virginia.
Why the fuck is Virginia VA not VI? And why do Americans expect everyone to know these 2 letter codes for their states?
VI is the US Virgin Islands.
Haha, I have no idea why. As for Americans, I think because they make up a big chunk of Lemmy users, lots of them just assume everyonen else is from there as well.
In Israel you'll get a cup of hot water and teabags to choose from.
Hot water with peppermint is also a popular option as well as sweet tea.
NJ here. If you ask for just "tea," it usually means hot tea. You'll then be asked for the usual add-ons, milk, lemon, so on. It's usually black tea, some places will have others, and they'll ask if you just ask for tea. Unless you say "iced," "unsweet", "sweet", or any flavors they might have, they'll usually assume hot tea.
I live in Australia now but someone already had a good answer for Australia.
I’m from Indonesia and there it’s most likely sweet iced tea if you don’t specify anything. But I think it’s more likely they would ask, warm or iced, and sweetened or unsweetened. You’ll get black tea with sugar syrup, sometimes regular sugar for warm tea. Lots of restaurants would often have iced lemon tea, which is also sweetened but with some squeezed lemon.
Give me the wrong kind.
Either sweet or unsweet but always the one I don't want.
Hear me out: if you're like this, maybe ask rather than blaming others?
Hear me out: I do.
Then why do they give you the wrong kind?
Here they tend to either ask you if you want green or black tea or bring you a box of lipton with various flavors and let you chose from that.
And 9/10 chance it'll taste moldy AF.
Tea isn't very common here.
Middle East, tea ranges from Moroccan tea to the west to Chai in the east. If you ask for just tea (without specifying):
Gulf: unsweetened black tea
Egypt and Levant: overly sweet and over steeped black tea (levant usually with mint).
West of Libya: green tea with one or two types of mint.
Scotland - you'll get a pot of brewed tea or a cup with a black tea bag in. And some milk.
I once got a teapot with a few tea bags inside and one free water refill, I live in Poland and tea is rather warm/hot drink here
Even in hot countries people drink hot tea, it's a custom in Turkey for example, in north Africa people drink hot coffee and it's surprisingly effective in fighting the heat
One of my coworkers brought this Turkish coffee set to work and made me some Turkish coffee. It was so good
I used to live near a cafe that did Turkish coffee, your comment has made me realise how much I miss that place. I live in a big city now, I can probably find a new place
I think the difference is that the south-east us is humid as hell. You sweat and it doesn't evaporate ever. The only way to cool down (outside or in the past) is to drink something cooling. Air conditioning was literally invented because typical coolers (swamp coolers) worked by evaporation, and it just didn't function in the south east us.
I get black tea, cream, and sugar. Hot.
In Atlanta it depends on the context. After dinner and at a fancier restaurant, they'll usually bring tea bags and hot water. At the beginning of a meal, or at something like a BBQ restaurant, you'll get sweet tea.
I presume at a BBQ place you get sweet tea no matter where on earth you are.
Well... American BBQ. Probably not Korean.
Lol, yes. At a Korean BBQ you'd probably get barley tea.
Ha. I didn't even realize you had "Korean" in your name until just now.
Lol! Funny how that worked out.
You probably look down on all of us regular people. /s
WTF?
You'd get a mug of builders tea.
Take a wild guess where.
Estonia!
I mean, I did ask for a wild guess.
A nice hot cup of char with a separate little jug of milk and sugar to taste. Oh, and a little spoon. Lovely
I'm guessing auto correct got you on your cup of "char". Either that or you very sarcastically don't like chai.
Oh no old bean, no autocorrect involved...we call it char round here
Ah... that's... interesting. Is there a reason why? And where is that? Cause I don't think I'd ever connect the two. Like, if someone offered me a cup of char, I'd probably think coffee before tea. Cause one is at least significantly roasted.
Lapsang souchong.
Yum.
I suppose I could see char being an apt description (which I'm curious if that is what the other commenter was referencing). While I wouldn't say it's roasted, the flavor itself could convey that flavor I guess. Being roasted isn't the only way to get a smokey flavor, which I think is one of the main flavors I associate with the word "char". That or charcoal.
Let's not read too much into my dumb joke.
Always hot tea in thin waisted little glasses. If I drink in a good place it is "rabbit blood". I am from Turkey.
Interesting. I'm driving from Raleigh to Northern VA tomorrow with lunch in Farmville, VA. I'll have to test this theory. Can corroborate that NC "tea" is super sweet iced tea.
Edit: Hmm, so I asked for tea in Farmville, VA and the waitress asked me "sweetened or unsweetened". We told her what was up and she admitted that she was from further north in Virginia, but she had learned to ask while working there. Where she was from, tea would be unsweetened unless specified.
So ... Maybe there is a bit of a DMZ in Virginia before you fully cross into unsweetened territory?
"so like iced or hot?" If you ask for hot you get a cup of hot water with a bag of saddness floating in it.
Probably barley or green tea in a little paper cup. I'm in Korea.
You'll usually either get a pot of tea with a teabag or two in or a pot of hot water and some tea bags. Milk is usually served in a separate jug.
Chicagoland: They ask what kind. Iced tea is a thing, so are different kinds of hot tea. Some places have bottled brands, depending on the place. It's not all that complicated.
Same in my area.
USA Midwest, you are generally asked if you want sweet or unsweetened black iced tea. There are usually various sweetener packets at the table that you can use. Some restaurants only have sweet tea.
This is my experience as well in the Midwest. I almost always as for unsweet and never really have a problem getting it.
Brisk Iced Tea, I think. Most around here drink MTN DEW like its keeping them alive.
We talking breakfast tea, cream tea, high tea, dinner or just a cuppa?
US Midwest - the restaurants I visit don't have iced tea (IF they serve cold tea, it's the premade kind at the soda fountain). I get a cup of hot water, a single bag of black tea, and sometimes a lemon slice. If there isn't sugar at the table you have to ask for it.
Where the hell are you in the midwest that they don't have iced tea? It's ubiquitous in my experience.
Not a guarantee here in northern Indiana.
In the southern states of Australia you're likely to be asked "English Breakfast, Peppermint or Green?" Maybe one or two other varieties depending on the establishment.
I get hot tea, unsweetened. New Zealand. I would probably get a couple of sachets of sugar to sweeten my tea if I want to, or they'll be in a container at the counter or on the table
Very few places here would even have iced tea, especially the sweetened varieties, and you would definitely have to specify it. Only at some "nicer" restaurants would you even have a chance of finding it, most fast food chains or buffet type places wont have it with the exception of some Asian places
I remember some years back staying in a hotel in New Jersey as a part of a wedding party that had gathered mostly from the UK and Commonwealth countries. I asked for tea on arrival, and they had none. When I came down for breakfast in the morning, there was a box full of tea at the breakfast buffet that had obviously just arrived by courier and just been opened up, management must have ordered it overnight for urgent delivery for all the English and Australasian guests, it must have taken them unawares
I knew someone back in college that tried to outline the sweet tea line. They found there's a zone of ambiguity where it will vary from restaurant to restaurant.
I thought a good follow up would be to ask different individuals how to make sweet tea. Those who know, know you can't just put sugar into iced tea.
Europe.
Either they ask back wether I want hot or ice tea (beverage) or they default to hot tea and bring out the tea arsenal in a small box to choose.
so if you want the beverage (ice tea) you should say that you want ice tea.
Probably an Arizona or Brisk.
Maybe a green tea if you're in an Asian restaurant.
I assume I would recieves a cup of tea.
How adroit of you.
How grandiloquent of you.
Nice response!
Are we studying for LSATs or what 🥱
not me. i'm far too old for that.
And if these are LSATs words, i've lost even more of the little respect i had for the intelligence of lawyers. these are barely high school SAT words from my time.
I'm not trying to insult you the way it may seem. it's just these are normal intelligent people words. they're ostentatious (har, har) but that was the point.
now, GRE words, they pissed me off. they're selected to be misleading.
in any case, I'm far too old for people to test me any more.
It entirely depends on what kind of establishment
They always ask "you mean hot tea?" And I fill with rage and think YES, of course I bloody well want my tea to be hot!
They show me a QR code laminated onto the table. Then I ask if they have a paper menu, and they sheepishly say no. Then I ask them what kind of tea they have, and they list a bunch of things involving citrus. Then I buy one of the citrus monstrosities to be polite, and never go there again.
Then I go home and make some basic green tea, and I follow the steeping instructions because overstepped green tea makes me nauseous.
I wish we only had a dystopian future and not the dystopian present.
Anyhow, I don't see how my kid doesn't have it worse.
I'm in South East VA and your border is wrong. It extends mostly up to NOVA, but even in NOVA sweet tea isn't that uncommon.
As a long time NoVA native I agree sweet tea isn’t uncommon but also not assumed. I think you’d get the same puzzled reaction if you ordered “tea” as if you ordered “soda”.
You ask for iced or hot, and you usually get some nasty ass Lipton tea if you go for hot, though this may vary by restaurant. I love tea, but I've spoiled myself with fancier ones to the point where I can't stand most of those big American brands. Some iced teas I can at least tolerate though.
If I asked for just "tea" at a restaurant here in the central valley of California, I would be asked what kind. The choices would be unsweetened ice, sweetened ice, or Lipton Raspberry Brisk (or a knock off brand I always forget the name of that's becoming more common than the Lipton). The only restaurants I know of that Incan get hot tea are Chinese places, and they usually only have oolong tea.
I was at a BBQ/steakhouse in Red Bluff once and they acted like I had a third head when I asked for sweet tea. I understand you were south of there but whereabouts in California can I find sweet tea?
If you want it like actual Southern style, McDonald's. Other places generally just have some sugar and lemon in the unsweetened tea and it's never really enough to make me happy. I usually get the Lipton cuz I'm a fat fuck.
Some restaurants might even just bring you unsweetened and a bunch of sugar packets. I don't think tea is very popular here :(
That's good to know. I usually have to cut McDonald's sweet tea with water, and I'd rather not support them anyway, but next time I'm on the left coast I know where to get my fix. Thanks, Kolanaki!
NM here and it depends on the restaurant, many only have iced tea. But when you ask for tea you will be asked if you wanted sweet or unsweetened. If you say sweet, they bring you packets of sugar and a glass of unsweetened tea.
Fast food places will have both dispensers but mostly the sweet is unsweetened.
North Macedonia?
New Mexico
Southern CA default seems to be unsweetened iced tea, which is basically all I drink so it's fine with me.
In the Texas, you can ask for “half and half” tea. You’ll get a mixture of sweet and unsweet iced tea. In a huge glass with plenty of ice. And free refills.
If you want hot tea, you need to ask for hot tea. Most places will bring you a couple selections of bagged tea and a too-small pot of not-hot-enough water. Hotel restaurants are known for bringing out a huge caddy of various tea bags for you to chose from. If you want milk/cream in your hot tea, you’ll have to ask for it, it’s not assumed.
From merica, Pacific Northwest. My experience is hot you'll get some hot water in a kettle with a box of various teas, or iced which is non sweetened, can add sugar if ya want. If I just said "tea", they'd ask hot or iced. Id feel strange just saying "tea" without being more specific.
I thought kettles didn't work in america because your electricity is too weak?
That's not how it works.
Since the voltage is half and the amperage is the same half the wattage is supplied to heat water. This means it takes longer not that it doesn't work.
OP also said they received hot water in a kettle not that they received an electric kettle in which to heat it in.
If electricity works in the US, what is Texas bitching about when its cold?
Same thing they bitch about when it's hot 😂
Plus I'm pretty sure the world's simplest circuit would be able to up the wattage. This person would have to believe so many things didn't work it's kinda nuts.
They don’t work as quickly because a standard appliance circuit is lower powered. Mine is still pretty fast though.
The bigger reason is just that they weren’t common until the last few years. Everyone just used a teapot on the stove if they wanted tea, but more likely a coffeemaker for the more common hot drink
They're still not common
Are kettle and teapot switched around in US English or something?
Not from my experience. Kettle is the thing you heat the water in. Teapot is what you'd serve tea out of. Northeast US.
So in cafes and restaurants you get kettles at your table to heat water for tea, and at home you put teapots on the stove to cook tea?
Or were the people I was replying to getting the two confused?
Could be either, since I don’t drink tea, but I’ve always known a teapot as the unpowered thing you put on a stove, oftentimes something fancy. Since I’ve seen things you plug in to make water hot, they’re always called a kettle (double checks Amazon). Some fancy China or whatever thing you put on a table is what grandma used for guests and we’d never have such a thing
Stovetop kettles are the og and existed for centuries before electric kettles. They're all just called kettles though and the heat source modifer is rarely mentioned.
I believe they were confused, but I don't doubt if there are differences between the US and other countries in regards to tea drinking, preparation, and serving standards.
I dunno, I'm southern, and you're right that sweet iced black tea is the default anywhere below the Mason-Dixon line. The only real difference you'll run into outside of niche places is Lipton vs tetley vs whatever industrial food supply had.
But you can get unsweetened almost anywhere, and Chinese-American places will almost always ask if you want sweetea just to be sure.
Above the line, when I've traveled into damn yankee land over the years, it's changed. Back as a kid driving through the Albanians Appalachians up to Ohio, and Pennsylvania, once you got into west Virginia, it was a coin flip what you'd get between sweet and not, and anywhere north of that, it was unsweetened iced tea.
Last trip I took, sweet iced was default even in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the few restaurants we went to.
I remember going to DC on a school trip in jr high though, and McDonald's didn't have tea at all in the one we went to. Baltimore during the same late eighties era, I only went a couple of times, but the fast food places didn't have tea on the menu.
Now, all of that could have just been a matter of not going to the right places, of course. But it's what I experienced.
Around here, in the Appalachians down to the foothills, good luck getting unsweetened iced tea. My wife is a damn yankee that likes her iced tea fairly strong, but only a tiny bit sweet. She calls the extra dark and sweet we have in this area tea syrup lol.
Either you'll get a sweet iced tea, or they'll ask "sweet or unsweet" before bringing iced tea.
Durham, North Carolina here.
Yeah. I've lived in rtp for a long, long time.
It is very, very rare that you get asked that question. Extremely rare. That's kinda the point of this post.
Supermarket tee (the one in the bags), just more expensive and cold.
Chicago: Asian restaurants will bring you a pot of already-brewed, ready-to-drink hot tea. So will nicer Western restaurants that have an actual tea program. Coffee shops and mid-tier restaurants will typically give you a cup with the tea already brewing and it's up to you to remove the bag or sachet in a timely manner.
Everywhere else brings you a little tea-making kit consisting of hot water, teabag(s), and maybe lemon and honey. You have to ask if you want milk, except at oldschool diners.
Good point. There's definitely that variation in certain restaurants.
Depends on the place Asian places will give you a kettle mug and a box of teas and other places will just give you the mug of hot water and the box of teas and sometimes you can ask for sweet tea and have the full options of sugar maple honey and raspberry tea I'm from Vermont by the way
Texas - fast food they ask sweet or unsweet. Sit down restaurant they sometimes ask and they sometimes bring unsweet and a box of sweeteners.
Why in England do they have such good hot tea and terrible iced tea? It's usually that shit lemon lipton can. Everytime i ask for a cup of ice they just look at me like I'm doing it wrong.
Because you are doing it wrong. Tea is a hot beverage and iced tea is an affront to god.
In the southern US where iced tea really took off, summer temps are typically over 35°. I'm not drinking hot anything in that weather.
coward
Colorado here, and at most restaurants you’ll usually be asked what type of tea or be brought a mug/teapot of hot water and an assortment of tea bags to choose from.
If you want a cup of tea then you'll ask for a cup of tea. You don't ask for just paper either, you ask for a sheet of paper. Be specific.