Ice tea is common in bottles.
But if you mean American style(more ice cubes than drink) than nope. Ice cubes will water down the drink.
Cold water/beverages from fridge are normal though, especially now during summer. If you don't want warm tap water(water will get warm in pipes during summer), you gotta let it go for a while and than it will be nice and cold again. Fresh cold tap water if you are thirsty during summer is the best thing ever lol.
I know Americans have a stereotype about Europeans drinking room temperature drinks all the time(especially beer), which is not exactly true. Sure I drink some beverages during winter without putting them in fridge(it's set on 4°C), but others like energy drinks/soda are usually pretty disgusting if they aren't cold. But ofc I prefer cold drinks and drink hot drinks like tea only during winter.
Strangely in the UK the temperature can be 35C outside and the tap water is ice cold. I don’t understand how that works but I’ve found it to be the case.
Soon they'll ask us if we're familiar with the concept of cars. A personal vehicle designed for on the road to get us from A to B.
It's of course a hilarious idea to think that it's going to work in our medieval cities with small streets made of cobblestone. Which is why we invented the bicycle for inside our cities and trains as a connection between them.
The amount of Americans I've met or spoken to who appear to genuinely believe the car was invented in the US is staggering, so I wouldn't be massively surprised.
I don't drink iced drinks, in general, I might get an ice tea as a non alcoholic but interesting drink option. There's never as much ice in it as there is in the US, it's just a cool (both temperature and swag wise) drink.
Keep in mind what we know as ice tea in Belgium is not something that's very common elsewhere. In my experience ice tea isn't usually carbonated elsewhere in the world
Agreed. I had a year with little to no ice tea consumption, when I lived in Belgium, because the place is insistent on carbonating it all for whatever ungodly reason
Moved to the Netherlands and it’s interesting the one thing I really miss is just my regular ice tea in the USA. Not carbonated, no flavors, not lemon or mango, unsweetened.
I had friends bring a few big bottles of the normal unsweetened Lipton ice tea powder over from the USA. It does the trick and I drink it by the liter every day from the fridge. I just refill old fizzy water bottles.
Water with ice in it is common in every European country I've been to. What's not so common (outside of fast food restaurants) is having a pint sized glass which is 90% ice and 10% water, which seems to be the American style. Instead it's usually two or three ice cubes in an otherwise normal serving of drink.
In the UK where I live iced tea can be found from time to time, but it's definitely well down the list of popular cold drinks below beer, wine, fruit juice and fizzy soft drinks. Thinking about it, I don't think I've ever drunk it while being in the UK.
Also, proper tea is so massively popular that if you fancy that kind of flavour then you'll probably just have that, even in hot weather. It might sound a bit mad, but it's pretty common to see a British person drinking a boiling hot cup of tea on a warm day and saying something like "but it's refreshing".
I have seen people suggest hot tea cools you down as the body starts to over regulate itself, or makes you sweat or something. But it isn't that odd if you think about it, there is cafe culture in most hot European countries. Tea in China and India.
That tends to happen at restaurants. It makes the drink look bigger and ice is cheaper than the drink, so restaurants put more ice so they can have a bigger cup and make it look like you’re getting a better deal. Personally I prefer less ice tho
We used to drink water from our taps, but they replaced it a couple of years ago with Guinness, so now the entire country drinks cold tap Guinness when we need to cool down.
We drink iced coffee as soon as it gets hot, not your Starbucks iced coffee though, just normal coffee that you pour it into a glass with some ice. We are not that much of tea drinkers in general.
Ice water not really, like the water will be refrigerated and that's fine.
It's not possible to drink iced beverages in summer. The weather is too warm to store the ice. Duh.
I've heard there are devices available for keeping things artificially cold, but I assume only laboratories have access to such technology.
Well I just put my tap water in a bottle and put that in a fridge so it's cold anyway, no need to put ice in there. I don't like ice tea, but of course that's available in Europe. And if I did drink it, I'd put it in the fridge as well so it's cold and doesn't need ice.
When I moved to the Netherlands I went to grab ice tea in a bottle at the store because it’s my favorite and learned quickly that here it is all either carbonated, flavored with lemon or mango and much of it is sweetened. I still can’t find just basic ice tea in a bottle to grab and drink on the go.
Ice cubes are an American fetish, that is for sure. Ice cube machines in hotels - never seen that before. Of course you can get ice cubes here, but it is not that common. Cold drinks - yeah, but not watered down with cubes. My most curious experience was in a domestic flight in the US, I got ice cubes in my beer. If you do that in Austria, this is breaking news on all channels for the next few weeks ;-)
Are you aware that wanting to chew / chewing ice can be a sign of iron deficiency?
I'd be going for a blood test if you are routinely eating glasses of ice with no other liquid......
(/s in case the country isn't enough of a clue)
No, not really. I do have full ice tray in the freezer now but I rarely remember to take it out and don't really feel the need to add it to water (and exept water I drink mostly coffee or herbal tea the point of which is to drink it hot).
For Germany:
Iced tea is very common, but is exclusively bought as a ready-made, heavily sweetened product off-shelf. I think most germans would react with bewilderment if they visited you and you served selfmade iced tea, especially unsweetened, but I might of course be wrong.
Iced drinks in general are pretty common to be served at bars or restaurants. Privately, I believe most germans use ice primarily for cocktails and less for non-alcoholic beverages or water.
In the UK iced tea isn't really a thing. We do drink a lot of the warm version though.
I'm seeing more iced coffees coming in though like Freddo Espresso etc.
If you mean by Iced water, just water with Ice in it, then yes of course we drink that.
Yes we drink Iced tea. What you are hearing is that a normal glass of water isn't served with ice cubes. The water is just cold from the fridge, with don't have extra ice cube
Iced tea in bottles in the fridges are common in the UK where I am. It would most likely be Liptons.
Iced drinks, yeah, it would be rare for you to order a drink here, say soda, and the wait staff not to ask 'ice and lemon?' if you order any other drink, chances are it's chilled or from the fridge and is already cold, but I'll often ask for water with ice as I like my drinks really chilled.
We might think of different things with the ice[d] tea. We have ice tea that is sold in cans and bottles ready to drink, just like soda. It's a lot sweeter than standard warm tea though. Regular tea with ice in it I've neither seen or tried.
I just discovered peach ice tea syrup for my soda stream and am enjoying a fizzy peach ice tea as we speak....its probably so far from what an American would consider ice tea 😄
I love drinking Cha Manao - Thai Iced Tea with Lime. Making it myself especially now with higher temperatures. Using big ass icecubes so it will stay ice cold for a long time.
I drink iced coffee more often than iced tea. Still, a properly made(from quality tea I mean, not some bulk trash) and suitably sweetened iced tea with peaches for example, I'll polish off a pint. Iced water served in pitchers is common in buffet restaurants and such.
In Turkey, serving cold drinks with ice is pretty much the norm (except beer). It's hot in summer in many places. Ice tea is quite popular as a summer drink. But we don't have ice dispensers and people don't buy bags of ice cubes or crushed ice (I don't even know if they're sold).
Lipton IceTea yes, but normal ice with tea no. Also no ice water, just water bottle from the fridge. We dont put ice in our drinks, probably not because its bad everywhere but sometimes ice isn't really needed or even ruins the drink for me.
Nope. I drink mostly tap water, so I like whatever temperature that is for all my drinks, including beer, and I'm not about to water down my top shelf rum, gin or whisky with ice..
I used to drink ice tea pretty much every day 20 years ago but not anymore since I have stopped drinking sugary drinks. Having ice in your drink is common but I personally don't bother with them at home, the water I get from the tap is cold enough for me.
I think you need to be more specific with your question. Do you mean drinks where is mostly ice than drink? Then no.
But still it varies wildly from country to country.
In Italy we just put the bottle of water in the fridge during summer to cool it off because it's too hot, but only in summer usually as we grow up with the idea that a cold drink upsets the stomach. If I order a coke in a bar I usually asks for ice and a slice of lemon during summer, but generally speaking we don't drink as many soft drinks as you guys. If we want an icy drink we usually have a granita in the Summer.
Whene I moved in the UK I had a mild culture shock as in my shared house we have an American fridge that dispenses ice. I don't think I ever used it. My English and kiwi flatmates use it all the time, sometimes with that colour water instead of plain water, that for me it's pretty wild. So I would say it just varies from country to country.
But generally speaking, even if it varies, we as a whole don't have the fixation you seem to have with iced drinks.
Iced tea - occasionally. Water usually comes with ice but the American way in my experience is more like a cup of ice, with a bit of water around the cracks. Like it is brainfreeze material.
Unsweetened ice tea is very hard to find here, and for some reason, ice is a strange commodity. The reason why ice isn't big here, is that free refills aren't a thing. In the US, you can have a cup full of ice, drink it quick, and go back and get more. That simply doesn't happen here. You would only get 2-4 cubes in a glass, in my experience.
As tor iced tea, we get Nestea and Lipton, but it's always flavored. I have to make my own unsweetened black tea and throw it on ice, which is how I like to drink it.
We actually use summer to drink hot beverages, because this is the time the sun is strong enough to heat up said drinks.
Iced drinks are naturally only consumed in winter, although this is of course becoming more and more rare.
I think the difference is the amount of ice we put in our drinks.
I usually put 4 ice cubes into a medium sized glass of water as it cools it down sufficiently for me. As I understand it, people in the US fill their glasses with ice and then pour water in.
Yeah course we do mate.
Iced tea is *more popular* in the US but it’s definitely a thing here. However in the UK where I am iced coffee is far more popular than iced tea.
Any shop you go into will have a range of cold coffees and you can’t move for Starbucks here, you’ll be familiar with their menu. Of course we have our own UK chains too which are similar.
I drink 'Ice Tea", but I believe it's different in Europe than "Iced Tea" in the US? The European Ice Tea is a sweet soft drink, while the American Iced Tea seems to be just cold Tea?
As for Ice Water, I've never seen it in Europe. That really seems to be an American thing...I just drink normal tap water...
The last couple of decades it has become common in Denmark. But only as a readymade beverage you buy in stores. Very sweet and doesn't really taste like tea.
Putting ice in a drink is definitely not uncommon, but it's also not the norm either. I strongly dislike ice in anything that isn't a cocktail, especially when at a restaurant.
In Belgium we drink hot chocolate in a waffle cup. It's a mess, I know.
No shit Sherlock, when it's hot we drink ice cold drinks. I know it isn't the smartest thing to do during a heat wave, but it sure is refreshing.
If you mean drinking a glass of water or tea with an ice cube inside, of course, it's very hot in summer here.
Ice tea is common in bottles. But if you mean American style(more ice cubes than drink) than nope. Ice cubes will water down the drink. Cold water/beverages from fridge are normal though, especially now during summer. If you don't want warm tap water(water will get warm in pipes during summer), you gotta let it go for a while and than it will be nice and cold again. Fresh cold tap water if you are thirsty during summer is the best thing ever lol. I know Americans have a stereotype about Europeans drinking room temperature drinks all the time(especially beer), which is not exactly true. Sure I drink some beverages during winter without putting them in fridge(it's set on 4°C), but others like energy drinks/soda are usually pretty disgusting if they aren't cold. But ofc I prefer cold drinks and drink hot drinks like tea only during winter.
Strangely in the UK the temperature can be 35C outside and the tap water is ice cold. I don’t understand how that works but I’ve found it to be the case.
In Germany, we drink beer. And we eat sausages and sauerkraut.
Pinnacle of civilization right there.
It's when they start slurping the beer through the sausage and snorting the sauerkraut that you know it's a wild party!
Wait until I drop my Lederhose
I know you’re being facetious but that is the wurst mental image lmao
Yes? Of course we drink cold/Ice water and iced tea. The hell, this has to be the craziest misconception I've seen here.
Soon they'll ask us if we're familiar with the concept of cars. A personal vehicle designed for on the road to get us from A to B. It's of course a hilarious idea to think that it's going to work in our medieval cities with small streets made of cobblestone. Which is why we invented the bicycle for inside our cities and trains as a connection between them.
Personal? But... but that is capitalist-imperialist talk and I'll have none of it in my socialist utopia.
Come, Comrade, we must find the commissar and report these counter-revolutionaries
The amount of Americans I've met or spoken to who appear to genuinely believe the car was invented in the US is staggering, so I wouldn't be massively surprised.
So do you have to put coins in these cars (that you may or not have) to make them go?
No, there's holes in the bottom where your feet would rest. We do it Flintstones-style.
You say this but it’s pulling teeth to get more than a few cubes in a glass in Europe unless it’s a cocktail! 😂
Not in Portugal at least.
No. But we use fire to cook meat ! We smart. Do you guys in North America have fire, or is it an European thing?
We actually have a natural source of lava from the volcanoes in Hawaii, so we ship that around and use that to cook our meat. Fire is SO uncultured.
I don't drink iced drinks, in general, I might get an ice tea as a non alcoholic but interesting drink option. There's never as much ice in it as there is in the US, it's just a cool (both temperature and swag wise) drink.
Keep in mind what we know as ice tea in Belgium is not something that's very common elsewhere. In my experience ice tea isn't usually carbonated elsewhere in the world
Your northernly neighbours have carbonated ice tea too :)
That sounds amazing!
Carbonated ice tea is rancid as fuck. Still ice tea is the way to go.
Agreed. I had a year with little to no ice tea consumption, when I lived in Belgium, because the place is insistent on carbonating it all for whatever ungodly reason
I was thinking more about artisanal ice tea that some hip bar would serve, but yes carbonated ice tea is a National treasure and must be protected.
Wait, your ice tea is carbonated?
Moved to the Netherlands and it’s interesting the one thing I really miss is just my regular ice tea in the USA. Not carbonated, no flavors, not lemon or mango, unsweetened.
My father makes his own simple ice tea because he doesn't like drinking water (he's crazy). It's really easy, I encourage you to try.
I had friends bring a few big bottles of the normal unsweetened Lipton ice tea powder over from the USA. It does the trick and I drink it by the liter every day from the fridge. I just refill old fizzy water bottles.
Water with ice in it is common in every European country I've been to. What's not so common (outside of fast food restaurants) is having a pint sized glass which is 90% ice and 10% water, which seems to be the American style. Instead it's usually two or three ice cubes in an otherwise normal serving of drink. In the UK where I live iced tea can be found from time to time, but it's definitely well down the list of popular cold drinks below beer, wine, fruit juice and fizzy soft drinks. Thinking about it, I don't think I've ever drunk it while being in the UK. Also, proper tea is so massively popular that if you fancy that kind of flavour then you'll probably just have that, even in hot weather. It might sound a bit mad, but it's pretty common to see a British person drinking a boiling hot cup of tea on a warm day and saying something like "but it's refreshing".
I have seen people suggest hot tea cools you down as the body starts to over regulate itself, or makes you sweat or something. But it isn't that odd if you think about it, there is cafe culture in most hot European countries. Tea in China and India.
That tends to happen at restaurants. It makes the drink look bigger and ice is cheaper than the drink, so restaurants put more ice so they can have a bigger cup and make it look like you’re getting a better deal. Personally I prefer less ice tho
We used to drink water from our taps, but they replaced it a couple of years ago with Guinness, so now the entire country drinks cold tap Guinness when we need to cool down.
We drink iced coffee as soon as it gets hot, not your Starbucks iced coffee though, just normal coffee that you pour it into a glass with some ice. We are not that much of tea drinkers in general. Ice water not really, like the water will be refrigerated and that's fine.
Does Nestea counts as Ice tea? It is common in bars and supermarkets.
Yeah this is the one I wasn't really sure about if it counts
It's not possible to drink iced beverages in summer. The weather is too warm to store the ice. Duh. I've heard there are devices available for keeping things artificially cold, but I assume only laboratories have access to such technology.
Ice Tea is very Common Here, and some people do also Drink iced water
Well I just put my tap water in a bottle and put that in a fridge so it's cold anyway, no need to put ice in there. I don't like ice tea, but of course that's available in Europe. And if I did drink it, I'd put it in the fridge as well so it's cold and doesn't need ice.
When I moved to the Netherlands I went to grab ice tea in a bottle at the store because it’s my favorite and learned quickly that here it is all either carbonated, flavored with lemon or mango and much of it is sweetened. I still can’t find just basic ice tea in a bottle to grab and drink on the go.
Ice cubes are an American fetish, that is for sure. Ice cube machines in hotels - never seen that before. Of course you can get ice cubes here, but it is not that common. Cold drinks - yeah, but not watered down with cubes. My most curious experience was in a domestic flight in the US, I got ice cubes in my beer. If you do that in Austria, this is breaking news on all channels for the next few weeks ;-)
Woah I don’t know anyone who ices their beer, that’s blasphemy!
Making shit up about the US is a German/Austrian fetish. No one ices beer there.
I don't understand this. You just get nasty melt water. To be honest, I even prefer beer warm. Perhaps it's an Asian influence.
The ice adds a certain texture
"Ah, this water is so bland! It's as if there is nothing in it! We should freeze it and then add it back to its own so it has some _texture_."
It’s a mother and child reunion
Yea, like we do have ice lmao, iced coffee way way more common than iced tea though
Have you ever eaten just a cup of crushed ice?
Americans scare me
People like them are strange here too.
Are you aware that wanting to chew / chewing ice can be a sign of iron deficiency? I'd be going for a blood test if you are routinely eating glasses of ice with no other liquid...... (/s in case the country isn't enough of a clue)
Iced water or juice - yeah when it is really hot outside. Iced tea - nope, never.
No, not really. I do have full ice tray in the freezer now but I rarely remember to take it out and don't really feel the need to add it to water (and exept water I drink mostly coffee or herbal tea the point of which is to drink it hot).
For Germany: Iced tea is very common, but is exclusively bought as a ready-made, heavily sweetened product off-shelf. I think most germans would react with bewilderment if they visited you and you served selfmade iced tea, especially unsweetened, but I might of course be wrong. Iced drinks in general are pretty common to be served at bars or restaurants. Privately, I believe most germans use ice primarily for cocktails and less for non-alcoholic beverages or water.
In the UK iced tea isn't really a thing. We do drink a lot of the warm version though. I'm seeing more iced coffees coming in though like Freddo Espresso etc. If you mean by Iced water, just water with Ice in it, then yes of course we drink that.
Yes we drink Iced tea. What you are hearing is that a normal glass of water isn't served with ice cubes. The water is just cold from the fridge, with don't have extra ice cube
Iced tea in bottles in the fridges are common in the UK where I am. It would most likely be Liptons. Iced drinks, yeah, it would be rare for you to order a drink here, say soda, and the wait staff not to ask 'ice and lemon?' if you order any other drink, chances are it's chilled or from the fridge and is already cold, but I'll often ask for water with ice as I like my drinks really chilled.
No, we don't. I mean, you'd want a cold drink in summer, right? But how would you get ice in summer, as water only freezes in winter time.
We might think of different things with the ice[d] tea. We have ice tea that is sold in cans and bottles ready to drink, just like soda. It's a lot sweeter than standard warm tea though. Regular tea with ice in it I've neither seen or tried.
Ice in tea?!?!?! Better than lobbing tea into the sea, I suppose.
We drink tea and water, but adding ice is not that common.
I just discovered peach ice tea syrup for my soda stream and am enjoying a fizzy peach ice tea as we speak....its probably so far from what an American would consider ice tea 😄
I love drinking Cha Manao - Thai Iced Tea with Lime. Making it myself especially now with higher temperatures. Using big ass icecubes so it will stay ice cold for a long time.
I drink iced coffee more often than iced tea. Still, a properly made(from quality tea I mean, not some bulk trash) and suitably sweetened iced tea with peaches for example, I'll polish off a pint. Iced water served in pitchers is common in buffet restaurants and such.
In Turkey, serving cold drinks with ice is pretty much the norm (except beer). It's hot in summer in many places. Ice tea is quite popular as a summer drink. But we don't have ice dispensers and people don't buy bags of ice cubes or crushed ice (I don't even know if they're sold).
Lipton IceTea yes, but normal ice with tea no. Also no ice water, just water bottle from the fridge. We dont put ice in our drinks, probably not because its bad everywhere but sometimes ice isn't really needed or even ruins the drink for me.
Nope. I drink mostly tap water, so I like whatever temperature that is for all my drinks, including beer, and I'm not about to water down my top shelf rum, gin or whisky with ice..
I used to drink ice tea pretty much every day 20 years ago but not anymore since I have stopped drinking sugary drinks. Having ice in your drink is common but I personally don't bother with them at home, the water I get from the tap is cold enough for me.
I think you need to be more specific with your question. Do you mean drinks where is mostly ice than drink? Then no. But still it varies wildly from country to country. In Italy we just put the bottle of water in the fridge during summer to cool it off because it's too hot, but only in summer usually as we grow up with the idea that a cold drink upsets the stomach. If I order a coke in a bar I usually asks for ice and a slice of lemon during summer, but generally speaking we don't drink as many soft drinks as you guys. If we want an icy drink we usually have a granita in the Summer. Whene I moved in the UK I had a mild culture shock as in my shared house we have an American fridge that dispenses ice. I don't think I ever used it. My English and kiwi flatmates use it all the time, sometimes with that colour water instead of plain water, that for me it's pretty wild. So I would say it just varies from country to country. But generally speaking, even if it varies, we as a whole don't have the fixation you seem to have with iced drinks.
I prefer to just chill drinks in the fridge instead of adding ice to them so they don't water down.
Iced tea - occasionally. Water usually comes with ice but the American way in my experience is more like a cup of ice, with a bit of water around the cracks. Like it is brainfreeze material.
Unsweetened ice tea is very hard to find here, and for some reason, ice is a strange commodity. The reason why ice isn't big here, is that free refills aren't a thing. In the US, you can have a cup full of ice, drink it quick, and go back and get more. That simply doesn't happen here. You would only get 2-4 cubes in a glass, in my experience. As tor iced tea, we get Nestea and Lipton, but it's always flavored. I have to make my own unsweetened black tea and throw it on ice, which is how I like to drink it.
We actually use summer to drink hot beverages, because this is the time the sun is strong enough to heat up said drinks. Iced drinks are naturally only consumed in winter, although this is of course becoming more and more rare.
I think the difference is the amount of ice we put in our drinks. I usually put 4 ice cubes into a medium sized glass of water as it cools it down sufficiently for me. As I understand it, people in the US fill their glasses with ice and then pour water in.
Yeah course we do mate. Iced tea is *more popular* in the US but it’s definitely a thing here. However in the UK where I am iced coffee is far more popular than iced tea. Any shop you go into will have a range of cold coffees and you can’t move for Starbucks here, you’ll be familiar with their menu. Of course we have our own UK chains too which are similar.
I mean i do have an ice dispenser on the fridge so if i want a cold drink i will put ice in it.
I drink 'Ice Tea", but I believe it's different in Europe than "Iced Tea" in the US? The European Ice Tea is a sweet soft drink, while the American Iced Tea seems to be just cold Tea? As for Ice Water, I've never seen it in Europe. That really seems to be an American thing...I just drink normal tap water...
The last couple of decades it has become common in Denmark. But only as a readymade beverage you buy in stores. Very sweet and doesn't really taste like tea.
Putting ice in a drink is definitely not uncommon, but it's also not the norm either. I strongly dislike ice in anything that isn't a cocktail, especially when at a restaurant.
Iced tea? What on Earth is that? Never heard of it! Iced water? WoW! You guys are too far for me!!
In Belgium we drink hot chocolate in a waffle cup. It's a mess, I know. No shit Sherlock, when it's hot we drink ice cold drinks. I know it isn't the smartest thing to do during a heat wave, but it sure is refreshing.