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.
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)
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
"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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_balm (Melissa officinalis)
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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?
Cincinnati Ohio, they'd ask you if you meant sweet or unsweetened iced tea
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.
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)
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.
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.
Pepsi ok?
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
They’ll probably bring a sad cup of water that used to be boiling and a Lipton tea bag. NYC, USA.
Southern US — get black tea, iced. Sometimes asked for sweeter preference.
Hot tea is never on the menu, except for tea houses.
Dim sum restaurant will ask you what kind
Pu-er, iron goddess, chrysanthemum, oolong, saumei, etc.
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.
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.
In this chunk of the Southern Cone they'll probably assume that you want this:
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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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Scotland - you'll get a pot of brewed tea or a cup with a black tea bag in. And some milk.
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.
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.
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.
For “nicer” restaurants, the universal sweet tea boundary seems to be precisely at the NC/VA border.
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?
I get black tea, cream, and sugar. Hot.
Always hot tea in thin waisted little glasses. If I drink in a good place it is "rabbit blood". I am from Turkey.
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.
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.
A nice hot cup of char with a separate little jug of milk and sugar to taste. Oh, and a little spoon. Lovely
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.
You'd get a mug of builders tea.
Take a wild guess where.
Take a wild guess where.
Estonia!
I mean, I did ask for a wild guess.
Probably barley or green tea in a little paper cup. I'm in Korea.
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.
They ask what kind
Same in my area.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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