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.
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…
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.
In the UK they bring you dinner
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.
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.
You get shown where the hot water and teabags are, go do it for yourself, we’re all peasants in Sweden.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
deleted by creator
Pepsi ok?
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.
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.
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.
Now that is interesting.
Dim sum restaurant will ask you what kind
Pu-er, iron goddess, chrysanthemum, oolong, saumei, etc.
I’m from Ireland. Asking for tea in a restaurant will usually get you a cup of English breakfast tea or an Irish variant of from a brand like Lyons, Barry’s, Bewley’s, or Fallon’s. Its a slightly different flavor to typical English breakfast tea, sometimes called Irish breakfast tea.
You would usually get a small pot of hot tea, with a cup, a small jug of milk and some sachets of sugar. Most people take milk and the equivalent of 2 tea spoons of sugar.
Sometimes I prefer coffee, but if I dont feel well or am stressed, I tend to reach for this kind of tea since that’s what I grew up with.
