Poll: Tea

[vakkotaur]

[Poll #1296665]

Comments

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe yo Americans messing up iced tea the way you do (I'm still wretching from one time that I was in your wonderful state and made the mistake of ordering my favourite drink - iced tea - and forgetting that I'm not in Kansas any more. It was tea made with ice cold water!)

What is wrong with you people? If you want the dreck you guys pass off as iced tea, one can make tea with cold water - I don't really care what a consenting adult does with a teabag in the privacy of his own home. But don't go serving it to people! I mean, major drink manufacturers (Coca-Cola-Conglomerated, PepsiCo, Gatorade, etc.) all make real iced tea and sell it on street corners here (and, from what I've heard, in the southern US. The one sane area of your country) But no one sells the dreck you Yankees call ice tea on the street corner cause they'd be run out of town!

Remind me next time I come to bring cases of Nestea with me and leave them around. Your country will thank me for it.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

If anyone was making "iced tea" by skipping the hot water steeping step, they're simply incompetent. I've not heard of anyone doing that, or at least doing it and not getting complaints or laughed at. The only way that one might skip right to cold water (even "sun tea" has time that isn't truly cold) would be with an instant, and that's... well, I left the instant tea question out of this poll by mistake. I see I need to make a little followup poll.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how they make it, nor do I care, these people probably screw up making ice cubes because they forgot the recipe. All I know is that it *tastes* like someone made hot tea with cold water, and that's all I care about.

FWIW, I only have my ice tea two ways, either from a package of powdered ice tea (well, a package isn't good enough for me, I usually buy a big drum of it at the bulk food store (no word of a lie. I just finished the last of the drum a few hours ago, and I can remember when I bought that one as well, that's how much I use it!) or (not as good, but still acceptable) get a can/bottle of it from the nearest vending machine. Nowhere does anything resembling "regular tea" (either tea bags or tea leaves) come into play, and I just can't see how ice tea (the "proper" kind) and "regular" tea are related at all even if you add sugar to it. When I do have "regular" tea, I usually put milk and sugar in it (which is how I answered the poll question), but even regular tea with sugar that has been sitting around for a while and therefore no longer hot doesn't taste a thing like the drink I know and love. Makes me wish the South would have won the civil war, if they make ice tea the proper way like I've been told at least then visiting your country would be easier. :)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Alright, now I'm curious. Just who are or were "these people" anyway? It's rather nonspecific. Was this an amazingly bad diner? A friend's or relative's place? A bottle of something from a convenience store? * reads first reply * Okkay, sounds like some restaurant or such. Dare I ask which one if you can recall?

If it was something you had to wait for, something that had to be made up, I could see someone rushing it and screwing it up. Especially if they don't drink tea themselves and went for "Oh, that looks about right."

Oh, this is just about the sugar? Is that it?

Then the main thing for you is that in the northern US and in Texas (which is Texas, not The South, so there you will get a warning if it's sweet tea so there's no nasty surprises) iced tea is unsweetened and you might get a slice of lemon or lime with it. In the South, iced tea is sweetened. This has some variation and it's often possible to get unsweetened in the South and to get sweetened elsewhere if you ask. And then there's that annoying raspberry things which ought never to be the default - and I have run into that nasty surprise.

For what it's worth, if I have iced tea I prefer it unsweetened and with a bit of lime. I once had a bit of an argument with a person checking stock or doing some stocking at a convenience store. I complained that they (that particular tea vendor) had no unsweetened tea. I got the reply that had an artificially sweetened tea for those not wanting the calories. My response was I wanted tea, not sugar-water with a bit of tea in it. I wound up buying a competing brand that had what I wanted.

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Nope, can't remember where it was. I think it was in the Mall of America, but don't quote me on that. I also recall a more recent trip to a rather good Mexican restaurant in Grand Forks that I can't recall the name of (but we usually go to when we're there) where I ordered it out of force of habit then, after one sip, realized "oh yeah, right, I'm in the States now ... "

Next time you come to visit (well, I'm not living with my parents any more of course, so it'll be a new experience of sorts) I have to give you some "real" ice tea - I'm curious to know the opinion of someone whose used to the Yankee style.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

If it's simply sweet iced tea (tea steeped in hot water with sugar dissolved while the water is hot... and then chilled) I've had it. It's sweeter and heavier than I care for.

[hakeber.livejournal.com]

I drink a lot of loose leaf tea from the local Asian markets. The tins usually don't have much English on them. My current fave is a green tea that look like little balls when in the tin, but expand and unfurl in the hot water into full size tea leaves. It's cool.

[rbradakis.livejournal.com]

Orange Pekoe is a cut (of black tea), not a style or type of tea.