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.
Same in Hungary.
They always ask “you mean hot tea?” And I fill with rage and think YES, of course I bloody well want my tea to be hot!
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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)
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Which country?
This can vary wildly per European country, after all.deleted by creator
Niederlande
Excuse me what did you just call us?
Nah, I jest.
In all seriousness, thanks for adding the list.deleted by creator
India, You’ll get properly boiled tea with milk (chai) unless you specifically ask for black/ red tea which you’ll only get in Kerala (called black/kattan ) & in our NorthEastern states (called red tea/lal cha).
The 2nd best way to piss off an Indian is to serve tea brewed with teabags, the best to upset us is to serve tea brewed using teabags and using powdered milk.
We like our tea to be boiled with milk, water, spices, and sugar/jaggery. If you want to make our day, boil the tea with condensed milk, water, and spices and watch us beam. The spices will always be fresh and any combo of sweet cardamom, ginger, cloves, star anise, pinch of cinnamon, lemongrass,
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.
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.
In Vietnam, if it’s a café they’d ask you hot or cold.
Normal restaurants you’d get iced tea, usually very strong unsweetened Lipton yellow label.
In the UK they bring you dinner
Tea would be an unusual drink to ask for in a restaurant (as opposed to a cafe) unless they do breakfast/brunch, or you were partaking of “afternoon tea” (a rare treat for the ordinarily incomed).
If it was “afternoon tea” you would be offered a menu of different teas to choose from and it would be served with a tiered tray of finger sandwiches and pastries. And you would be charged a ridiculous amount of money for what is basically a small picnic.
If you were ordering tea as a drink in a restaurant, it would most likely come in a small teapot (with a teabag unless it was a very posh place), possibly some extra boiling water to refresh the pot after you’ve poured some tea, a cup and saucer, a small jug of milk, and a bowl of white sugar or sugar cubes (or a selection of packets of sugar or sweetener if it was not such a posh place).
If you asked for tea in a cafe, depending on how fancy the cafe is, it might look similar to the restaurant offering, or it might be a teabag in a mug of boiling water, pots of UHT milk, and packets of sugar.
No one would ever assume you wanted iced tea unless you specified it. And if you did specify it, they would most likely look blank and say they couldn’t do it. I can’t recall ever seeing it on a menu. Hot tea would be providable by any establishment whether or not it was on the menu because pretty much every kitchen in the UK has teabags in it.
I assume this is in England/the UK? From the last sentence?
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.
“Black, green, peppermint, chamomile, melissa, ginger?”
10 minutes later you get a hot cup with a bag in it, no clue how long it’s been sitting in there already. Usually a bag of sugar and/or a cookie on the saucer.
Germany.
Also Germany: The place where I drink tea has a seperate tea menu of several pages.
I knew it was Germany from the selection alone. Might want to add Earl grey, if the restaurant is feeling adventurous
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_balm (Melissa officinalis)
Malaysia is fun for this. Just asking for tea (teh) will get you a hot sweet milk tea, if you want no milk you ask for “teh-O”. If you want no milk AND no sugar you ask for a " teh-O kosong", kosong basically meaning empty. Then of course there are the ice variants like “teh-O ais kosong”. So basically the default is getting everything except ice, then you add modifiers to take things out.
But tea language strangeness aside, Malaysian teh-tarik (pulled tea) is amazing and should get more global attention. Even the preparation can be quite a show and there are local competitions.
In this chunk of the Southern Cone they’ll probably assume that you want this:
Cold and sweetened yerba mate tea, often flavoured with lemon or peach. It’s actually quite good, preferable over soda.Brazil?
I’m in Georgia and if you ask for tea you usually get asked “sweet or unsweet”.
Midwest is generally this way too, but some only have sweet tea.
Dim sum restaurant will ask you what kind
Pu-er, iron goddess, chrysanthemum, oolong, saumei, etc.
If you ask for it at a particular restaurant you will receive a tea pot full of beer, the restaurant is not authorized to sell alcohol. It’s an open secret.
