Iced tea

No, we don't do Iced Tea and definitely not that weird mix thing you have in the USA.

You fucking stupid American, it’s not BRITAIN.

— British DL, amazed that Americans can’t grasp the fifty different meaningless layers of our stupid fucking country

[quote] we don't do Iced Tea and definitely not that weird mix thing you have in the USA.

What weird mix? Tea bags and boiling water? Yea it's so exotic. I just had iced tea at dinner.

I meant that horrid instant Iced Tea you gurls have in America - not a mix.

R3, maybe they're referring to powdered iced tea mix?

I'm in the US, I just cold brew my iced tea in the fridge overnight. Way cheaper, healthier and more convenient than sodas.

Only trash drinks that instant tea mix.

Shame. A tall cold glass of lightly sweetened iced tea with a slice of lemon on a hot afternoon is one of life's best pleasures.

That would be brewed, of course at r7 ^^

Tea for TWO

Love.making he brewed iced tea. A favorite is rooibos and also oolong. Great way to use up skunky flavoured teas often gifted to me like passion peach and so forth.

Honestly, I guess someone is buying the powdered mix since they keep making it. But, I've never known anyone who uses it.

I brew my own using Trader Joe's English Breakfast. No sugar. Lemon if I happen to have one in the house, but it's not a requirement. I like it plain.

ICE, ICE, BABY

Earl Grey iced tea is faboo.

I like iced tea, unsweetened, no lemon, then I add Sweet-N-Low. Yum.

When I was a destitute graduate student, a big soda was a dollar at the Rathskeller on campus. But the same size cup of ice was free, a teabag was 10¢, and microwave use was free. I could not begin to estimate how many ten cent iced teas (that were much better than the Nestea crap from the soda machine) that I made.

[quote] A tall cold glass of lightly sweetened iced tea with a slice of lemon on a hot afternoon is one of life's best pleasures.

Absolutely. I use sweet n low and lemon. I prefer those tiny ice cubes. It's a really low cost beverage. I just use cheapo Tetley tea bags - after the sweetener and lemon it makes little difference.

What weird mix thing, R1? You brew tea, then you ice it.

r17 see r4.

Who still uses Sweet & Low? That stuff is disgusting. Use Splenda, NutraSweet, or Stevia -- anything but Sweet & Low.

r9 And TWO for tea

I do an IKEA iced tea hack sometimes when I'm in their cafe. I hate sweet soda and don't drink coffee with food. I get a glass tumbler and brew one teabag with a little boiling water at the coffee station, then fill it with ice and top with a little lemon-flavored soda water at the soda fountain.

Love a tall glass of iced tea with nothing but lemon in it. I'm Southern but don't go for that overly sweet stuff.

R19, you should do some research in sweeteners. Sweet n Low has been around forever and it's completely safe.

Nutra sweet is aspartame. That stuff is terrible. With all the research into how bad it is you have to be daft to use it. I remember wanting to find a diet soda in the early 1980s and liked the taste of Diet Ginger Ale. After a few weeks I started getting headaches and I NEVER got headaches. Sure enough aspartame has been linked to lots of medical issues and one of them is headaches and seizures and other neurological issues. Searle bought FDA approval. Pure and simple.

Splenda has its own GI issues.

Stevia was banned in the US in 1991. Cancer.

Sweet n law is saccharin and it's been around for about 100 years. If you can't tolerate sulfa drugs then you can get an allergic reaction but otherwise it seems to be the safest sweetener. It's also not consumed by the body.

Do British people drink plain boiling water regularly?

Iced tea is not real tea.

Dear British, look in the mirror at your teeth. And then get back to us.

i put the tea bags in my ass when im done with them 😜

[quote]Do British people drink plain boiling water regularly?

Yes, some do. Plain freshly boiled water usually with a slice of lemon. It's a good hydrater.

The Chinese do too^ without the lemon. It's a good thing.

I buy one can of the powdered iced tea mix over the summer and finish it in a week. It's just sugar and food coloring, and drinking too much it will make you thirstier than when you started but it's a fun random treat.

The rest of the time I cold brew/steep green and black tea in the fridge and drink it without sweetener.

I wouldn't use any of those artificial sweeteners. They are all shit. Just use a tiny amount of real sugar.

I bought the Milo’s gallon of cold zero calorie iced tea (Brewed) and my ex boyfriend didn’t notice it wasn’t regular milos’s sweet iced tea. He went to the doctor with rashes from the Splenda and was pissed at me..he needed to read the label...love sweet tea from the south but they pour a ton of sugar in it

There was a time when a request for iced tea in a London venue would result in a blank stare, followed by scorn. Now the Brits have the best revenge: they serve it, and charge the fucking moon for it. I fear the entire British economy would collapse if the free refill were ever introduced.

Can one of the sweet n low posters please share how many packets u add to a big iced tea..I’ve only used Splenda

I adore iced tea and have always had it with 10 drops of stevia and 1 Splenda. I guess we all die of something or other. Death by iced tea.

Not English, though I'd presume iced tea is sacrilege to them. I'm an American and I like hot and iced tea; depends on my mood, really. If I'm having hot tea, it's always black (either standard breakfast tea or Earl Grey, with cream). When I was a kid, my mom used to make sun tea in the summer—she'd fill a huge jar we had, throw three or four Lipton tea bags in, and let it steep in the sun for a couple of hours. We always drank it unsweetened, though adding a bit of sugar makes it more treat-like. I like it plain; it's very refreshing.

They don't do "iced" anything in moldy old England. Nation of piss drinkers.

Hot tea. Iced tea is an American thing.

Is sweet n low even legal - I thought is was banned? You know you are trash when you drink iced tea with sweet n low.

The Brits will drink anything if you top it off with some booze.

I prefer Skinny-N-Sweet

A proper Englishwoman once made me hot tea the very proper English way and it almost seemed as ritualistic as how the Japanese do it.

Proper English tea and the prep, warming the pot, is one of my favorite pleasures. There is nothing better than a long high tea with champagne or g&t on a cold day. In London, I love The Dean Street Townhouse. I may or may not have had Covid over the holidays - we didn't know about it in late December/early Jan when I was traveling and was really sick for weeks while traveling - all the symptoms. I would just go Dean Street Townhouse everyday and have high tea and then go back to my hotel. It was so warm and cozy. I'm hoping I wasn't Typhoid Mary everywhere I went. Iced tea I always associate with WT from the south,

[quote]There is nothing better than a long high tea with champagne or g&t on a cold day.

Does "high" tea always include champagne and gin? First I've heard of it.

Will drink iced tea in the middle of a blizzard

R44 - Not as a rule, but I'm American I don't know. When you go out, usually a cocktail or a glass of champagne is part of it. Maybe that's the difference between high tea and just afternoon tea. I am too lazy to google. it.

Afternoon tea is the version that most people think of (at least in the US), with pots of tea, scones with jam and cream, finger sandwiches, and cakes/pastries. High tea is a large, typically working-class, family meal with dishes like steak-and-kidney pie, potatoes, baked beans, casseroles, etc. When you add champagne to an afternoon tea it is called -wait for it -a champagne tea. A cream tea emphasizes the sweets over the savory sandwiches (though they may still be there).

Legend has it that the name "high tea" comes from the fact that afternoon tea is typically consumed from sofas and easy chairs around a low table, while the meal is served on a high table in the dining room.

[quote]Will drink iced tea in the middle of a blizzard

Is that a new menu item at Dairy Queen?

[quote] Can one of the sweet n low posters please share how many packets u add to a big iced tea..I’ve only used Splenda

I don't add anything to the pitcher if that's what you're asking. But for my individual glass it depends - on the size of the glass. I usually 3 packets but then my taste buds have dulled with age. LOL!

I used to only need 1 or 2 packets for tea or coffee. That made me wonder if maybe they were putting less in each packet for economic reasons and so I googled Sweet n Low to see if could find a phot of an old packet. That's when I learned about its history and how it came to be used as a packaged sweetener. Previously it had been used for large commercial cooking purposes. It's a Brooklyn story. LOL.

So just add one packet and taste it and then add more until it's what you want.

Ditto R49. I like very sweet iced tea. In a restaurant, if there is a ton of ice, I use one packet. OTOH, if there is relatively little ice and I cannot see through it, I add three packets. Again, I like very sweet iced tea.

Why do I use saccharine? Sweet-n-Low dissolves completely and quickly. Equal, Stevia, real sugar, and Spenda sink to the bottom and do not fully dissolve.

[quote]Stevia was banned in the US in 1991. Cancer.

Huh? I purchase this all the time, in liquid form. It's a purely natural sweetener, from Stevia leaf. It's not banned.

Brits are just bitter that we have giant refrigerators/freezers and air conditioning.

R51, importation of whole-leaf stevia was banned in 1991 but that was reversed a couple of years later and it was allowed to be sold as a supplement. It still isn’t approved for use in foods.

What is sold as stevia now is actually rebaudioside A, a purified extract of the stevia plant.

Love iced tea. I live in the south and couldn’t survive the summer without it. I brew it in a pot and then pour it into a pitcher and fill with water. I don’t take it sweetened though. Moved here as a kid from California and never got used to the sweetness - southern sweet tea tastes like Karo Syrup to me. Disgusting!

Became addicted to Iced Earl Grey last year. Adore.

Stevia sweeteners are very highly concentrated versions of stevia leaves. I think some of the concerns over it's use also were whether it's safe to consume it that concentrated.

I love sweet tea! I make a simple syrup and add it to the tea so it dissolves easily. Then I ice it and add lemon.

Off topic slightly but cyclamates were banned here in the sixties I think or early seventies ...Canada banned saccharine but still sells cyclamates I think..I used to bring it back to Seattle but the border is COVID closed

[quote][R51], importation of whole-leaf stevia was banned in 1991 but that was reversed a couple of years later and it was allowed to be sold as a supplement. It still isn’t approved for use in foods.

Interesting, I didn't know there was such a risk attached to it.

Not sure the ban in food production still holds, I've purchased yogurt made with stevia, Oikos made a line of these and there was a plant-based almondmilk line I used to enjoy (can't recall the brand name). Haven't seen the latter in stores recently though. Coke also made a stevia-sweetened product I liked (Coke Life), but they supposedly discontinued it after a couple of years because peopke didn't like the taste.

[quote] Only trash drinks that instant tea mix.

R6 has stated her boundaries!

I like all kinds of tea, hot and cold. I'm a Yankee, and prefer my iced tea unsweetened, though sometimes I throw fresh or frozen fruit into the pitcher.

My absolute favorite for some time now, has been Stassen Jasmine Green Tea. I like it hot, and cold. Sometimes, I add a splash of unsweetened cranberry juice over the ice, before filling the glass with the cold tea.

Iced tea is very popular here in Norway. Even more popular than hot tea.

I stopped drinking it as soon as I saw a piece on the NBC Nightly News about its strong link to cancer.

[quote] Stevia was banned in the US in 1991. Cancer.

Someone should tell all the grocery chains in America then, because it's on all their shelves.

Table sugar has a strong link to causing cancer. I do use stevia, but not as the main sweetener, more as a booster to cut down on the other sweeteners. Sugar alcohols like xylitol are very sweet, and taste quite natural but can cause stomach upsets, they pass through undigested so I do not trust that. I add one-quarter stevia, to unrefined sugar and honey and it's natural tasting with less blood-sugar impact.

[quote]I stopped drinking it as soon as I saw a piece on the NBC Nightly News about ...

I have a friend who is forever reacting to "a piece on the ___ news about..." You never know what he's going to be hating or, more mildly, objecting strenuously to, on any given day. There's always going to be a new piece of information that comes along and contradicts the first piece.

Again, if you’re buying Truvia, Pure Via, Stevia in the Raw, etc. you are not buying what was banned as a food ingredient in 1991.

You’re getting a single isolated compound from the stevia plant, rebaudioside A — usually called “stevia leaf extract,” “stevia extract” or “reb A” on the ingredients list — mixed with inulin, dextrose, or erythritol and some added flavoring to mask the taste. If you’ve ever opened a new jar of Truvia the cotton-candy scent hits you in the face, in the worst way possible.

What was banned for use in food, but not as a supplement, was whole-leaf stevia....meaning you are getting all of the compounds that caused its safety to be questioned in 1991.

Some manufacturers of protein bars and shakes get around that by listing it with the other added supplements in their products but including enough of it to act as a sweetener.

Whole-leaf or extract, they both taste awful to me for different reasons. One has the weird bubblegum/cotton candy flavor and the other tastes like blood and metal.

Well, R65, I’ve been waiting lo these many years - and it’s been close to 10 years, now - for a contrary report.

R62 which item?

Good for you, r67. I'll drink iced tea for both of us. I just poured the water over the tea bags, so it'll be awhile. In the meantime, San Pellegrino.

R69, are you also going maskless?

Hot tea. Drop of milk, half a sugar. Then roughly 2/3rds of a pack of biscuits

R68, it was a segment on laryngeal cancer, said then to be the fastest growing cancer, and commercially-sold sweetened iced tea was said to be a prime factor.

Oh, I don't drink that, r72. I make my own iced tea.

Sneaky of you, not mentioning "commercially sold and sweetened." And no, shrew, I do not go maskless. I hope you do, though. And that you get breathed on...so fucking breathed on, sneak.

An English friend once expressed bemusement at the whole idea of iced tea to me: "You mean you brew a pot of tea .. and then deliberately let it get cold?" He seemed to think the phenomenon was an American peculiarity, but I've been served iced tea in France and other countries plenty of times.

I'm not a fan of tea in any way shape or form. But then I'm a picky drinker ... I didn't even start drinking coffee until I was 60. I hate milk, sweetened soft drinks (diet are OK), beer, wine, most liquors, apple cider, etc.

r75, what did you drink in your youth, other than water?

You need to check your meds, R73. As commercially sold and sweetened iced tea was very much a part of this discussion, I was in no way being “sneaky.”

r76 Well, yes. I did used to like orange drink. Kool-Aid. Milk, when forced to. Chocolate milk. I never was a big fan of carbonated drinks until Diet Coke came out in the mid-'80s, then I became an addict.

What we saw, r77:

Topic: Iced tea

Your response: I stopped drinking it as soon as I saw a piece on the NBC Nightly News about its strong link to cancer.

So kiss my ass and suck the meds right out of me.

U guys need to get laid..the bitchy ones

"U" guy need to get schooled, r80...in how 2 spel gud.

Iced tea is pretty trashy in general.

R79, if I've succeeded in getting the attention of just one person who consumes these products I'll have had a successful day. What have you accomplished today other than being a monumental dick?!

Nothing is intrinsically trashy that has a special spoon made for it.

Except all you did was make all iced tea look bad. Take your "F" and go home.

When I was a kid, we often had iced tea with dinner during the summer in Chicago. Probably Lipton from teabags as that was what my Mom drank.

My Dad would add other juices from the fridge - orange juice, grapefruit juice, lemonade, etc. whatever happened to be there at the time. So, it never tasted the same way twice.

Now when going to restaurants where they offer iced teas like raspberry, etc., I remember those dinners and the restaurant teas never taste as good as the ones I remember.

Regarding tea and cancer (this study does not address commercially sold sweetened teas):

[quote]The results from this meta-analysis of observational studies demonstrate that coffee consumption would increase the laryngeal cancer risk, while tea intake was not associated with risk of laryngeal carcinoma.

Here is some more on DL Stevia-Gate. Some of the excerpts are from groups which can be political in promoting what they consider "health foods". There are lots of articles on it. You're all adults: do your research and make your decision.

- Stevia was banned in the United States in 1991 for use in food, it could only be sold as a dietary supplement. Only after a surprising effort from the soft drink industry, specific compounds from the Stevia plant were eventually made legal as a food additive in 2008.

[Not sure why this article says it was surprising. The soft drink industry in this case being Coca-Cola & Pepsi – 2 companies totally devoted to healthy products. George W. Bush was president from Jan 2001 - Jan 2009, just saying, not accusing anyone of bribery.]

- From the UC Berkeley School of Public Heath January 2020

It’s been 11 years since the FDA granted GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status to purified extracts of the stevia plant, clearing the way for stevia to be marketed as a calorie-free sweetener. Since then, stevia has become a widely used ingredient in a variety of “diet,” sugar-free, and reduced-sugar foods and beverages, including dairy products, cereal, candy, chewing gum, soft drinks, and flavored waters. It’s also sold in individual packets under such brand names as Truvia, Pure Via, and SweetLeaf, and in larger containers for use in home cooking, including baking. Stevia may be listed on product labels as stevia leaf extract, rebiana, stevioside, rebaudioside A, or rebaudioside D, among other terms.

All natural? Not exactly

The stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana) is a South American shrub in the aster family (Asteraceae). It has a long history of use as a sweetener. The indigenous people of Paraguay, for example, have used its crushed leaves for centuries to sweeten their herbal teas and medicinal potions.

The high-purity extracts of stevia are different from whole-leaf stevia or crude extracts of the herb, which are classified as a dietary supplement, not a sweetener— and which can have a notably bitter aftertaste. The purified extracts are made by steeping the leaves of the plant to remove the sweet compounds, called steviol glycosides, which are 250 to 300 times sweeter than table sugar. Marketers tout stevia as a “natural” alternative to artificial sweeteners like saccharine and aspartame. It’s true that it derives from a substance found in nature rather than a synthetic chemical. But the stevia sold commercially is as highly processed as other sugar substitutes. In fact, Truvia and PureVia were developed in part by Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co., respectively. The companies were instrumental in securing stevia's status in foods and beverages.

It’s worth noting that stevia packets contain only a little stevia extract, which is so intensely sweet that it wouldn’t be practical to sell it by itself in single-use packets. What you’re actually getting is stevia combined with a bulkier “carrier” agent. Truvia, for example, mixes stevia leaf extract with erythritol, a sugar alcohol. PureVia lists dextrose (a form of glucose usually derived from corn) as its first ingredient, followed by stevia (labeled as Reb A, short for rebaudioside A, a steviol glycoside). Both Truvia and PureVia also list “natural flavorings.”

-

Brits love instant coffee!

Trash!

This is the only kind of teabagging I'm into.

Earl Grey tea gives me a headache. I have no idea why. Can anyone tell me?

google?

The only thing about I find by googling is speculation about caffeine. I have never had any problems with that.

Have you been drinking gallons of it, for decades?

If so, can I have your stuff?

Some on this thread are likely fat and ugly judging from their b8tchy replies.

No, r94. Just a cup once in a while for a short time until I realized what caused the headaches. Now I stick to Lipton.

"It's plain, ordinary Lipton's tea."

We use tea bags on the stove and we're in Texas.

R88, every time I see your sig, I think of JMac the porn star. It's a nice thought. =)

[quote] [R88], every time I see your sig, I think of JMac the porn star. It's a nice thought. =)

Oh my. Thank you. I am happy to inadvertently bring a smile to your face even with my clothes on and not having to strain my back.

Stevia is not banned in the US. Apparently the study that was problematic was debunked or put into perspective.

R96, it could be a reaction to the bergamot. I find that I'm fine with the occasional cup, but if I drink more than one at a time, I get a sinus headache.

R36 Cream in Earl Grey? That's unusual. We don't take milk with Earl Grey, or Lady Grey. We also don't serve scented teas with most food. Some request Earl Grey with a tea spread, but it's rare.

I like Iced tea, but I've been living in the States over twenty years. I like to cold brew the tea (never bags) and let it sit in my fridge for 48-72 hrs. This produces a clear bright tea, without bitterness. I don't add sugar, sometimes lemon.

I'm also fond of Asian milk teas, they're instant, so I suppose I'm "trashy" like that. My favourite ones come from HK and Singapore. I find I like the ones best that have both milk powder and non-dairy powder cream. They're sweet, and lend themselves well to making your own Chai with your choice of spice.

Another tea popular with Americans I like is Market Spice, Seattle Spice, or Constant Comment, by Bigelow. They all have that nice orange peel or orange oil... I find these make an especially nice iced tea as well.