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Iced Tea? impossible?

937 views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  eastshores 
#1 ·
I grew up mostly in the US south-my Mom and Dad from New York City and small town Iowa. Growing up, we all drank unsweetened iced tea with lemon at just about every meal.

Working in food service in NC and Florida for most of my adult life, I took it for granted that a nice glass of good, at least decent, iced tea could had at any restaurant.

Fast forward to my life in New York. Every time I eat out and order iced tea I get a wine glass of cloudy, acrid, stale "tea" with maybe a few cubes floating around in it-all for $2.50 or more! When I ask for a refill, I get charged again! Last night I ordered iced tea and got a glass of something (again in a wine glass!!??) that was absolutely black! I thought it was iced coffee, but indeed, it was some kind of tea, but nothing suitable to be a refreshing iced drink. WTF?

Horribly, sometimes I get served a bottle of Snapple-yuck. 

Is it impossible to get a proper glass of iced tea in the north?

Why do restaurants charge so much for such a cheap drink and yet make it so badly?

Is this just a regional thing---northerners just don't drink iced tea all that much?
 
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#3 ·
A fellow I know and his wife recently went to North Carolina to visit her mother and sister.  They were seated at a restaurant, the waitress came over and asked about drinks. They all said iced tea.  The waitress asked Scott, and only Scott, if he wanted sweet tea or regular. How did she know he was the only non-native?

mjb.
 
#6 ·
Up here in the Midwest, you will find everything from instant powdered gross stuff to "Nestea" right out of the soda guns.

Some places will make one small pot of hot tea and pour it into a glass of ice with lemon.

Very few places here brew actual tea to ice.
 
#7 ·
I don't really understand the idea that a region would have any part in the way that a place handles tea. Tea is either brewed fresh, it's stale, or some nasty stand in whether it be powdered or syrup. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd be willing to bet that Subway Subs has fresh tea brewed in NYC.. I bet Burger King and McDonalds does too.
 
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