Julie Bove wrote:

<snip>


> I do not like to order tea in a restaurant unless it is one that specializes
> in tea. Too many times I've gotten a pot of water that wasn't really hot
> enough to make tea. And sometimes I also get an inferior tea bag. Iced tea
> can be problematic. In sometimes comes sweetened and is not available
> unsweetened. I think this is more common in some parts of the country/world
> than others. And even if it's not sweetened there is no guarantee that it
> is fresh. I used to work at a place that made instant tea in a huge metal
> dispenser. The tea wasn't necessarily kept cold and instead of cleaning out
> the dispenser each time they refilled it, they merely added more tea to it.
> Often, mold would form in there. I don't drink coffee much at all any more.
> I used to when I smoked. It went well with cigarettes. As such, I want to
> smoke when I have it. So I don't have it. I don't care much for water
> either unless it is good bottled water. All too often the stuff from the
> tap tastes awful!
>

The Brits do a much better job with coffee than we Merkins do with tea!

I drink a LOT of ice tea. (I once heard a server at a place I eat at
frequently go into the kitchen and say ("The ice tea guy's here.)
THe stuff some places serve as ice tea is not recognizable as any form
of tea at all. (Some of the places they use a concentrate: the result
tastes an awful lot like ice tea that's been sitting around for a few
days. Even the powdered mix is not as bad as the concentrate.)

As far as "unsweetened"--I once saw a nutrition label on the side of a
fountain machine that dispensed "unsweetened" Lipton* "ice tea." The
first two ingredients were water and HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!!!!!!

*Some places have Lipton ice tea that's really ice tea, and there's
nothing wrong with that stuff.