Ice Tea
 

It has been over 10 yrs since I traveled by car up to the northeast (went to New York state). The last time beyond a certain latitude (can't remember the cutoff), the restaurants did not have ice tea on their menu. They only had hot tea. Why don't the people up that way drink ice tea in the restaurants, at least in the summer? What about the midwest? I drink it in all seasons.

i am from ND we drink it here

In Missouri you will find iced tea on the menu ... it's even in the convenience stores now, sometimes with special flavors. Do those areas serve ice water with a meal?

My guess is that unlike southerners, the northern restaurants don't know how to make GOOD iced tea. It's so awful, no one ever orders it . . . so they finally stopped making it! :p

All restuarants/convience stores, etc., here has iced tea. Its a staple. We driink it unsweet. When we go south sweet tea is their staple.

We have ice tea in NY.. I don't know about ten years ago..

I like sweet iced tea but some restaurants have horrible iced tea! If I like what they have I will drink it with my meal but if I don't like the taste (could be the water or the brand of tea) I won't order it at that place. I can also drink it with or without sugar but artifical sweeteners are a big no no to me. Don't like the aftertaste!

I was just at a big event and the drink options (in bulk) included iced tea.

My question is, why is it so hard to get iced coffee? It is SOOOO good.

O Yeah -- iced coffee -- yum. I have to keep both iced tea and iced coffee in the fridge all summer -- doesn't get consumed as much in the winter.

If you are a true Southerner, you add sugar while your liquid is hot. Makes the ice tea so goooood! At restaurants they usually add the sugar later. It doesn't taste as sweet.

In New Hampshire we have ice tea. Most of restaurants serve unsweetend ice tea. McDonald's has sweet tea.

That is so untrue! I live up North and we always have Ice Tea on every menu. We also love peach and raspberry tea.
I can't drink sweet tea because of the sugar,but, you can get that here also. Now I can't figure out why Europe doesn't drink it, is it because they don't have ice cubes?

In Montana you can get Iced tea in restaurants year round. Also some places have the fountain raspberry and peach tsweetened teas.

LOL I was just being silly, hence the :p face. I was born and raised in New Orleans, LA and can't drink the southern sweet tea, either. I like a little sugar but "sweet tea" is just TOO much sugar, for me!

Sweet tea rules! The kind where there's so much sugar in it that your spoon stands straight up in the glass... LOL! Y'know who has goos sweet tea (at least in this neck of the woods)? McDonald's! Who knew??

I live on Long Island in New York and get iced tea all the time! I'm not talking about the drink Long Island Iced Tea either. Just ask and most places have it. Sweet tea is a different story. You may have to add your own sugar. I know that is not the same, but it works.

I'm from VA via WV and we all drink ice tea and all the resturants have it on their menus; including fast foods. Most fast food here offer the large ice teas for $1.00. I don't like sugar or anything in mine. It satisfies my thirst so much better when it's not sweetened. I know there was a time a few yrs back where a lot of fast food places quit serving it due to a violation in health codes. The health department set new guide lines as to what type of container it could be stored in and the spout that is on the container had to be able to be completely taken apart to cleaned. It wasn't before. I'm as finicky about my tea as I am about my coffee, especially since I don't put any sugar in it to cover the taste. I don't like tea that has that off taste it gets from sitting too long or being in a container that wasn't cleaned to well. It will always be my beverage of choice; that and ice water w/lemon are at the top

and you can also order iced coffee very easily. If it's not on the menu, simply ask. My DD, who lives in Madrid, complains about not being able to get iced coffee there...when she asks, they bring her a cup of coffee and a glass of ice!

As a fellow Southerner, I've wondered the same thing. My family went on vacation in Boston many years ago and when I ordered iced tea, it came with two cubes in it. When I asked for some extra ice to cool it on down, the waitress started to scream at me!

But I'll bet they have things on their menus that you don't find in Mississippi! Ah, diversity - love it!

In the south it's called 'sweet tea' and up north (home for me) it's called iced tea. Don't know where you traveled that didn't have it.

My DH went with a church group to Vermont about 3 years ago. Beautiful area, but no sweet tea. At each place they ate and asked for it, they were given iced tea and some sugar packets. Gross! He said they even tried to explain to some waitresses how to make it and they seemed intriqued by the concept. The first thing he wanted after getting home was a nice tall glass of sweet iced tea! Lol

Both DD's went to NYC 2 years ago and couldn't find any either. At least everyone was ready to come home soon, if only for the sweet tea! Lol

I love lebanese tea!

We have it in Iowa. :) I drink it all the time!

Several years ago I went to Rhode Island on a business trip. The restaurants in the town where I was did not serve Iced tea, it was out of season (I was there in Nov.). I solved the problem by ordering hot tea & a glass of ice. Any true southern girl knows how to make good Ice tea.

My first encounter with sweet tea was in Costa Rica about 10 yrs ago. I ordered iced tea and when I tasted it I knew it was sweetened. Being diabetic I had to order No Sugar but I sure did love the taste of sweet tea.

Sweet ice tea is best fresh. Restaurants seem to let it sit too long. I only drink homemade. But now I have to cut back on sugar and tea id one of the first to go :(

I'm with Kuntryquilter. I was traveling in the southeast one summer and couldn't get iced tea. I like it brewed and UNsweetened. DIY in the restaurants worked fine, everybody in the places I did it thought I was crazy. But if you are not used to it, sweet tea is cloying. And I sure don't need the calories. McDonalds introduced sweettea in northern California just a few years ago, and I understand that it now outsells the regular kind even here. So now I have to ask for 'regular'.

I live in New Jersey, the restaurants that I go to offer sweet or unsweeten or flavored teas

Iced Tea
 

I can remember when in restaurants in the south the tea was never sweet. My aunt had a seafood restaurant in NW Fl and she is the first one that I remember ever serving sweet iced tea. In fact her place was reviewed by some magazine and they mentioned that..about the sweet tea. Naturally you have to sweeten it when it's hot and I like mine "aged" overnight before I drink it. I know..I can be weird at times!!! LOL

Hugs
joyce

I am also in ND, and been through the whole state and you will find it on the menu, but usually unsweetend.

Just curious, how do you brew a real good batch of ice tea. Most people in my neck of the woods use a powder mix. I find it too sweet and the tea taste is lost. I have tried to brew my own but just curious how the experts down south make it.

So how do you make good iced tea or coffee?

When I asked for iced tea in Michigan in December the waitress looked at me like I was crazy!

When we lived in Chicago and Kansas City I never had to request unsweetened iced tea because that's the only kind they serve. Forgetting about my southern roots, I went on a business trip to Alabama and nearly choked when I took a great big gulp of tea ... they serve it sweet unless you request unsweet tea!

Most restaurants don't like to waste anything so the tea stays in the container until it's gone. After a few hours at room temp the tea will start to turn. So the restaurants end up having bad tasting tea so it doesn't sell. I return many glasses of ice tea that is 'old'. Most managers don't know about tea, just use the automatic machine and think it's okay to let it stay there until it's gone. You can tell with the fist sip. Sad that so many get the old tea and think that is how ice tea is suppose to taste. Sun tea has the old taste if left in the sun for a couple of hours. I make a pitcher of ice tea every day. We drink tea instead of soda. My favorite is black tea.

I am a transplant to the South from the Northeast where I drank plenty of iced tea. My problem in the south is not getting sickeningly sweet tea. I emphasize unsweet, no sweetener and 9 times out of 10 a spoon could stand up in it, it is so bad.

We've had the same problem.

I drank iced tea in Alaska and Iceland.

Well to tell you the truth,you have to ask for it ,it is not something on their menu because during the winter time it is something that is not a very good seller.I do have to say we do not have as good of sweet tea as you do down South.

Well I lived in OK for quite a long time and I drank sweet ice tea there and when I moved back here I still make jars of sun iced tea up here and I'm now in Canada. I think it depends on the area its a hit and miss. I know the Panera Bread chains carry it.