sweasel.com

What IS it with ice in the U.K.?? Visited there back in the 80’s and trying to get a cold drink of anything was a nigh impossibility. Mom actually horrified a waitress by asking for “iced tea”. It was one of the oddest things about the whole trip. That and the seemingly universal visceral hatred for the phrase “Have a nice day”.

After all this time, I still have no idea, Mitchell.

I make ice. It makes me a weirdo.

Iced tea?! It took me a long while to realise that Her Stoatliness actually drank the stuff and wasn’t extracting the urine.

We send tea back if it’s cold.

Then again, you are winning. I now see Lipton’s stuff resembling bottled goat piss in the chiller cabinets, so it looks like the message is getting through. I think some of the younger folk drink it, on order from Hollyweird.

As for ‘HAND’ it smacks of that same sort of blinding sincerity as ‘I did not have sex with that woman’…

Forgive me, I need to go and lie down in a darkened sett, witha cup of hot Assam tea.

I am from the deep south and couldn’t live without iced tea. It was always on the supper table.

Sweet tea—the table wine of the South.

If the moulds are silicon you could make chocolate in them. You could have baking fun and make a gingerbread stonehenge.

My goodness, what a wonderful website that carries that ice cube tray. Not only do they have a full assortment of ales for sale, they have a complete range of weapons and armor for little kids and adults. Swords, bows, axes, shields, helmets, crossbows!! Crusader chain mail!! And they said England was soft!!

I fear if I ever visit your rainy shores, I’ll order tea, meaning ‘iced’ and get the reverse of what I got when I first moved to Texas and ordered tea, at that time meaning ‘hot’.

Where’s the damn Star Trek episode where the British accented French captain orders “Lipton Iced”?

And my college girlfriend assured me that Earl Gray smelled like something she’d use to keep her sock drawer smelling nice.

I drink upwards of a liter of iced tea a day. I know this because I make it in a one-liter pitcher at least once a day.

I have, however, broken myself of adding sugar. Iced tea is usually called ‘sweet tea’ in the South for good reason — holy shit it is sweet. I just have it plain with a little lemon.

It’s bergamot, DurnedYankee, although it’s a little confusing. The ‘proper’ bergamot is Monarda , native to the US and widely used to flavour cold drinks, including teas.

However, the flavour of Earl Grey is from the bergamot orange (citrus) which isn’t related.

Funny things plants. I grow quite a few members of the geranium family which seem to specialise in mimicking the scents and flavours of completely different species (orange, lemon, mint, rose, damp weasel (OK, I lied about that one)). I’ve never read a really convincing explanation of why this happens but it does.

One of the dumbest fights I ever had with JavaMan was over how much sugar to put in the tea pitcher. He wanted it barely sweet, and I wanted it sweeter. I said I wasn’t going to make tea anymore, that he could make it. He started drinking water, and I don’t think he’s had a glass of tea since then, 1994. I have hot tea now and then, and occasionally a glass of iced tea if we eat out, but it’s coffee, water, or Dos Equis for JavaMan.

Uncle B – I take Lemon Balm as a classic example of mimicry. or plants that are totally unrelated, yet taste strongly (or vaguely) of licorice.

Or everything that tastes like chicken.

One of two possibilities come to mind to explain this and I’ve applied for a $2 million grant from the Federal government to do a study.

We’re wired to taste only a limited number of flavors from the flavor table in our brains and the brain finds the best fit for something it doesn’t have and picks chicken, licorice or lemon (rather than abend….)

OR

the Master of the Universe laid out a quest for us to see if we could identify all the things that tasted like lemons, black licorice, and chicken, and when we do our reward will be access the Celestial City Bazaar, where we’ll be able to buy the one food that tastes like lemon flavored licorice chicken.

and I don’t think he’s had a glass of tea since then, 1994.

Heh. Javaman is still winning an argument 25 years later. Classic.

Getting mad at “have a nice day” is like getting mad at “How are you?” or “How about this weather, eh?”. It’s such an innocuous thing. I started using it deliberately when I bought stuff just to irritate people.

Ha! Javaman is winning by depriving himself, eh? People change their behavior in the weirdest ways if they perceive the change to be a point of honor. That innate stubbornness is a goodly part of what keeps humans at the top of the food chain.

BTW-Have youse guys seen this?

I have a theory that you could figure out where you are in the US purely by ordering “Tea”. Say, that evil forces of an enemy power parachuted you out of a plane and then took you blindfolded to a restaurant. In order of Superman to rescue you he needs to have some idea where to look. As he orbits the earth he’s listening for you to speak. However the magic spell you are under only allows you to say two words. The world “Tea” and your guess as to where you are. So “Tea” it is.

If you order Tea and get a tea-bag of Lipton, a tea cup, and hot water you’re in the NorthEast. If you get a mug and the water is really hot, you’re close to Canada. The farther south, the more tepid the water, until Virginia: If you are asked if you want iced or hot, you’re in Virginia. If you’re asked “sweet or unsweetened” you’re in the Carolinas and iced tea is automaticity assumed. When they just bring you sweet ice tea you can tell how far south you are by the amount of sugar. The sweeter, the more South. However Miami will offer you sweet tea with only artificial sweetener . If they tell you they only have relaxing organic herbal tea you’re in California. If they tell you they only serve coffee you’re in Washington or Oregon. If they point out it’s a special local blend it’s definitely Seattle. If you get a tea bag but it takes 15 minutes, you’re in Minnesota – the restaurant didn’t have any but they went and got some rather than disappoint you.

There’s more but nice nurse says I have to take my medication and my nap now….

BJM, I remind you that Americans switched to coffee because of the Boston Tea Party and have stayed that way for 250 years.

Olio o’ comments…

I like tea. I like iced tea. I like sweet tea. These are three different drinks, and properly drunk in differing circumstances.

I like coffee. I don’t like iced coffee. So sue me.

To make proper Suhthuhn tea, you must add the sugar to the boiling water. Otherwise, it won’t all dissolve. Yes, THAT much sugar.

Even though I’m completamente Estadounidense, “have a nice day” rubs me the wrong way. My solution is to culturally appropriate the Strine universal salutation, “G’day!” but without any attempt at a Strine accent. I works just fine coming or going, just like Ciao!, and is sufficiently similar to HAND that it raises very few eyebrows, much less a punch in the nose the way Ciao! might, nor a pitying stare for the odd Aloha!