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I must disagree -- I'm with the many whose preferred usage is 'iced tea'. Tea that has been iced. In just the same way, as "iced coffee," is not the same thing as "ice coffee" (which would have to be frozen coffee, or coffee ice).
This is one of my standard language rants. To make a beverage cold with ice is to ice it; in the past tense, the beverage has been iced. Some point out that we say "ice water" and "ice cream." But those are really the exceptions to the rule. In both cases, in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the year-round availability of ice was a newer thing, these were described as "iced" in writing: iced water, iced cream. However, through usage, people slurred the "d" ending into the next word: (ice'water, ice'cream) because 'iced' does not flow comfortably into the initial sounds of 'water' or 'cream'. So we elided it. You can hear this process already with iced coffee, which is usually spelled 'iced coffee,' even though people often say 'ice'coffee' as if it were one word. Because "tea" already starts with a sound similar to the "d" in iced, there's no need for elision.
This is certainly something that has evolved; but going with most standard sources for written usage, it's "iced tea."
Second or thirding the love for Orwell's essays - I have an old Penguin collected version & those and Down & Out in Paris & London are by far my favorites of his work. He was at his best as an essayist, I think.
Iced tea! What a great idea. I'm so dry and thirsty right now that I could spit (or, I would if I had some saliva) and I hate the taste of the water here at work. But we do have tea bags and sugar, so I can boil the water and then make nice, wet, sweet, cold, refreshing tea. Yay!
Because "tea" already starts with a sound similar to the "d" in iced, there's no need for elision
I agree that it grammatically should be "iced," but I think it's actually the ... liaison? ... that's the problem. The d and the t slide into each other and become indistinct, so it pretty much sounds like "ice tea" even when in your head, you're saying the d.
Especially if you're in the South, where "ice" becomes almost two syllables and people drop final consonants on a regular basis.
I say 'ice water,' of course, and when I say 'iced tea' you can't hear a difference, as occhiblu notes. But when I write the word, it's definitely iced tea -- which is the same usage you see on commercial products like Lipton and Nestea, and on the side of your tea box, where you read the instructions for 'iced tea'.
This is definitely one of the many instances in which spoken and written English differ; you can't hear it in 'iced coffee,' either, and yet it's written that way at the coffee store, too.
Mmmm, muddgirl. When I was working at a bar I learned that you can call the iced tea + lemonade combo an "Arnold Palmer."
Sweet tea! Ah, yes, that's the stuff. Heaven in a glass. My grandmother used to make it by the gallon, and it really is kind of an art. You have to brew hot tea, melt the sugar into the warm water, then pour the cold water into it. But oh man, is it good. We always used to drink tea sweet in my house growing up, but then my parents started to try to eat more healthfully and we weaned oursleves over to unsweet tea. Which I still like - it's bitter and crisp.
But whenever I travel in the south again, at the very first place where they have it, I revel in a real sweet tea. With crushed ice (not cubes).
Celestial Seasonings Peach Apricot Honeybush tea makes excellent ice(d) tea. As does their Cranberry Apple. Oh, who I am kidding - all of their teas make delicious teas icy or hot.
iced tea and lemonade here in Baltimore is called a "half and half", and it's the local drink, analogous to Lake Trout and Chicken Box, the local foods.
Homage to Catalonia has always been my favorite Orwell, which is saying A LOT. It's by far one of the most important books I've read, and unendingly complicated the notions of revolution, the left, and people's action for me. I'm glad for that.
I've also always really appreciated that Orwell excused P.G. Wodehouse's radio broadcasts for the Nazis, on the basis of Wodehouse's confusion about politics and his genius for comedy. I wish I could find the same excuses for Pound, but him I just think of as an anti-Semitic fascist shitheel.
huh. It turns out that I follow pretty much all his rules for hot tea, the huge exception being the no-sugar thing. Though he's so adamant about it, I'm thinking of trying to try it without for a couple of weeks.
That sounds hard. Ouchy!
Also, as a person who grew up (mostly) in the south, and lived there almost 30 years, I adore sweet southern iced tea. and I say "iced" in my head, though what you hear from me probably sounds like "ice".
I'm one of those weirdos in England who prefers coffee. And it has to be 'real' coffee, never instant (most people here drink instant, but the instant coffee here is much, much better than the instant you can buy in the US). And black, strong and sugarless.
just thinking about this some more... and realizing, "Fug! I don't even use sugar anymore... I use 'sweetener'. Gah. I really do need to try his suggestion of a fortnight without, and then hope I don't ever want it sweet again.
(okay, I'm using crappy "sweetener" and that's uck - but hey! I've lost 25 pounds now. Bunnies, I'm smokin'!)
My tea addiction has taken a serious hit. Black tea keeps me up and the doctor has nixed all my favorite herbals.
And to make things worse, I've got a real craving for my mom's homemade iced tea now. Brewed slowly in a big pot on the stove with a million tea bags, too much sugar and a zillion lemon slices. That smell is summer to me.
Had my morning cup of Earl Grey earlier, and am now enjoying my afternoon cuppa Ty-phoo with lots of milk (but no sugar!) and a few McVitie's digestives on the side (yes, I went to the cute little British tea shop in Santa Monica the other day, why do you ask? I also got some Cadbury's hot cocoa, several cute little jars of Devonshire cream, and some blackberry-apple tarts. Mmm, English sweets!).
And another vote for the greatness of Homage to Catalonia.
I remember when I gave up sugar in my tea. I was a kid and I had to chose between giving up sweets or sugar in my tea for lent - so tea it was.
After lent I was really excited about my first cuppa with sugar and I made a really big deal out of it. Of course I tried one mouthful and wanted to puke.
I guess there's probably a lot of people who were brought up christian who don't have sugar either. Hmmm, I wonder....
Of course I know what a sit-down strike is (and a slow-down strike, too), and being from NJ I know what the Mafiosi mean when they say 'let's have a little sit-down,' but in this context 'a sit down' is an English colloquialism meaning to set aside agitation and have a quiet talk to reconcile differences.
Just for a counterpoint, I really hate sugary drinks -- whether it's tea or coffee or sodas. I'll take my tea and coffee black, thanks. The sugar makes my mouth feel all sticky and stuff.
Going back to the South (although this isn't true for the part of Texas where my family lives) is always a rude awakening. That first gulp of sweetened iced tea is a big shock when you're not expecting it.
Weirdly, I gave up sugar in my tea (and I used to dump massive quantities of sugar in my tea) fairly easily. I'm hoping one day I will suddenly have the same "Hmm, just don't want it anymore" feeling with coffee.
I am down to one teaspoon, in a big mug. I used to use three in single shots of espresso. So there is forward progress.
"Yeah, I really like just a hint of sweet. It should stop short of tooth-hurtingly sweet."
posted by Miko 24 January
Most Southern restaurants started making sweet tea a lot sweeter (using corn syrup as the sweetner) when it became customary to heavily ice the tea in the glass only, where the melting ice dilutes the heck out of the drink, eventually. Corn syrup, particularly white Karo syrup, is the HFCS power behind 95% of Southern sweet tea, and it's pancreatic dynamite.
Most restaurants south of the Mason-Dixon will pour you a "half sweet" on request, which is a 50/50 mix of unsweetened and sweet tea, and is somewhat less likely to induce diabetic coma on contact.
okay, that's like the third time eid has made laugh, yes, out loud, tonight. I really needed to laugh, too.
YES! I win at loving taz! (in a contest with only myself, so don't worry) What were the other two? Strictly in the interests of improving future LOLing.
Oooohhhhhh! the one with the meat pies, scody? The one that puts a different pastry cutout to determine which one you're getting? I love that place!
I like my iced tea and coffee unsweetened and hot latte with two sugars--I gave up on regular soda a long time ago, but in the last few years it seems like diet soda doesn't really quench my thirst. The first time I bought no added sugar barley water in London I didn't realize it needed to be cut with water--and couldn't figure out why it tasted so strange.
I quit drinking diet soda daily a few years ago -- I had formerly had a 2-liter-a-day habit, just about - and the next time I had a diet soda I noticed how salty it tasted. The stuff is just loaded with sodium; I guess it encourages you to drink more of it. Anyway, it explains why I could never seem to get enough to feel refreshed.
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