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.
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.
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
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
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.
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’ll probably bring a sad cup of water that used to be boiling and a Lipton tea bag. NYC, USA.
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.
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?
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.
Probably barley or green tea in a little paper cup. I’m in Korea.
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?
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
Which country?
This can vary wildly per European country, after all.Germany, Austria, Sweden, Niederlande etc.
Niederlande
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!
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”.
Cincinnati Ohio, they’d ask you if you meant sweet or unsweetened iced tea
I get black tea, cream, and sugar. Hot.
Southern US — get black tea, iced. Sometimes asked for sweeter preference.
Hot tea is never on the menu, except for tea houses.
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.
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.
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.
