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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Dim sum restaurant will ask you what kind
Pu-er, iron goddess, chrysanthemum, oolong, saumei, etc.
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!
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?
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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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
