Unsweetened Iced Tea

[hargist]

This is going to sound like a pointless Andy Rooney rant. It is, but oh well.

Have you noticed that it's almost impossible to find plain unsweetened iced tea anymore? I'm not talking about in restaurants or diners. Of course you can get it there. I'm talking about any other place that sells iced tea in bottles or cans, like at a convenience store or a gas station.

I don't care for things that are too sweet. I don't have a big sweet tooth. And I much prefer the taste of good old fashioned unflavored iced tea rather than the ones flavored with, well, you name it.

I was just in a place and, I kid you not, they had 15 varieties of iced tea. None of them were unflavored and unsweetened. They had every flavor you can imaging (peach, lemon, berry, etc.), but no good ol' plain unsweetened iced tea.

The only company that I can ever semi-reliably find unsweetened iced tea is Lipton. They come in bottles. And even then, I sometimes have difficulty finding it.

So what is it with all the flavored iced tea? Surely there's got to be a huge number of people who prefer their iced tea unsweetened and unflavored, but I'll be darned if you can find it!

 

[AlanC]

My own rant: there is no point to unsweetened ice tea.

It has been my experience that outside the South it is almost impossible to find sweetened ice tea in restaurants.

 

[KittyT]

A lot of places, it's even hard to find unsweetened, unflavoured tea in restaurants. I remember that with some frequency, as a child, I would go places with my mom and they wouldn't have it. My mother would always ask if they had hot tea and ice, and would then instruct them that they could make her iced tea

 

[hargist]

My own rant: there is no point to unsweetened ice tea.

It has been my experience that outside the South it is almost impossible to find sweetened ice tea in restaurants.

You don't need pre-sweetened tea in restaurants because they serve it in a glass. If you want it sweetened, you add a pack of sweetener.

It's kind of hard to unsweeten tea once it's been sweetened.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

I hate sweetened or fruit flavored iced tea. So gross! Unless it's, say, a black tea that has fruit essence in it, ie, NOT a Snapple too-sweet fruit flavored soft drink.

 

[hargist]

I hate sweetened or fruit flavored iced tea. So gross! Unless it's, say, a black tea that has fruit essence in it, ie, NOT a Snapple too-sweet fruit flavored soft drink.

I agree. Ever since I gave up soda a long time ago, I lost my taste for overly sweet things. Now I prefer things as they taste naturally without an overcoat of sugar.

 

[AlanC]

You don't need pre-sweetened tea in restaurants because they serve it in a glass. If you want it sweetened, you add a pack of sweetener.

It's kind of hard to unsweeten tea once it's been sweetened.

Sugar won't dissolve in a cold drink; you have to use one of the various fake sweetners, which I don't use (they taste bad, for one). Usually when I go out I simply drink water, which always comes unsweetened when I order it.

I don't drink Snapple, et al. I'm talking about regular old sweet tea like Tetley that you make at home in a pitcher and drink on the porch. Or drink with a rack of ribs or chicken fried steak.

 

[Archie Goodwin]

You don't need pre-sweetened tea in restaurants because they serve it in a glass. If you want it sweetened, you add a pack of sweetener.

It's kind of hard to unsweeten tea once it's been sweetened.

It is also hard to sweeten tea once it has been cooled. The sugar just sinks to the bottom, without dissolving.

 

[DominusTecum]

I've never seen much point to iced tea, period. Hot, with cream, thank-you.

If, for whatever very strange reason, I'm drinking iced tea, I prefer it sweetened, usually. However, most of the sweetened teas are too sweet for my taste, and are rather revolting, really. Many of them taste as if they're sweeter than pop is. If I wanted to drink liquified sugar I'd have asked for it.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

It is also hard to sweeten tea once it has been cooled. The sugar just sinks to the bottom, without dissolving.

Which is why in restaurants...you just use a blue, pink or yellow packet.


We are not talking about Sweet Tea in the southern sense here....merely iced tea.

Two different animals...

 

[Rooster]

When I first started doing business in the South I was baffled by this. I ordered iced tea and the waitress responded "sweet or unsweet?" I said HUH?[huh] And she repeated "Sweet or unsweet?". I was with some southern gents that kindly filled me in on what the hell was going on.
Here in the midwest you get plain old iced tea.; You add your own sugar if you want.

 

[Archie Goodwin]

Which is why in restaurants...you just use a blue, pink or yellow packet.


We are not talking about Sweet Tea in the southern sense here....merely iced tea.

Two different animals...

My apologies, I only know Sweet Tea in the Southern sense. As for the earlier post concerning hot tea, I enjoy that as well during our three or four days of winter. I do find ice necessary for the rest of the year.

 

[scotrace]

I hate sweetened or fruit flavored iced tea. So gross! Unless it's, say, a black tea that has fruit essence in it, ie, NOT a Snapple too-sweet fruit flavored soft drink.

Oh c'mon Miss_Bella, give it a go with some jiggly gelatin! lol

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Oh c'mon Miss_Bella, give it a go with some jiggly gelatin! lol

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

mmm jiggly tea...but is that sweetened jiggle...or non....and how would you sweeten non sweetened jiggle before you eat it?

lol

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

mmm jiggly tea...but is that sweetened jiggle...or non....and how would you sweeten non sweetened jiggle before you eat it?

lol

Cool Whip? lol

It's not the jiggle that grosses me out. It's the....boiled skin thing. Blerg.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Cool Whip? lol

It's not the jiggle that grosses me out. It's the....boiled skin thing. Blerg.

It's probably no coincidence that gelatin rhymes with skeleton—because that's exactly what it is



BUT.....so that you too can have your tea-jelly, I present you with....

its vegan!

 

[scotrace]

You'd probably need to sweeten that with,... what's that stuff only the Brits seem to have? Melami... something?

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

It's probably no coincidence that gelatin rhymes with skeleton—because that's exactly what it is



BUT.....so that you too can have your tea-jelly, I present you with....

its vegan!

Yay!

 

[ShortClara]

Just like the true unsweet ice tea is just plain, the only true sweet tea doesn't come in a bottle, and doesn't have a pink packet in it. I HATE being told I can just sweeten it with blue or pink stuff and it's the same! No, in the South, you boil it in a pot and add the real sugar when it's HOT and then it's sweet tea. It's hard to find the pure version of either I expect. I'm always told I can have unsweetened, though. But in California, never sweet. I feel your pain, even though I crave the opposite