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24 January 2007

Well, I think everyone could use a nice cup of tea. [More:]And maybe a sit down. But maybe not. Just the tea would be nice, thanks.
I don't think I ever realized the debt Douglas Adams owes to Orwell for that essay, which could not be more Arthur-Dentish.
posted by Miko 24 January | 15:19
George O. and I would not get on. I like my tea ice cold, with plenty of sugar, and I make big pitchers of it to last for several days.
posted by JanetLand 24 January | 15:20
Mmm, JanetLand. I grew up with iced tea as the main table beverage. I miss it.

Mint tea is also excellent iced.

There is some green tea downstairs which I may just go make a cup of.
posted by Miko 24 January | 15:22
Only it's ice tea, not iced tea. :)
posted by JanetLand 24 January | 15:28
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Did that really come from Bambi? It's not older than that? Oh, am I nitpicking again?
posted by danostuporstar 24 January | 15:33
Thanks, Miko.

I've always liked tea, but in the last six months I've become a real Earl Grey addict.
posted by BoringPostcards 24 January | 15:35
I think it's a bit of a shame that Orwell is best know for 1984. His book of essays is a great read, full of lots of unexpected and interesting stuff.
posted by dodgygeezer 24 January | 15:40
Ninethly, tenthly. Hee!
posted by Specklet 24 January | 15:43
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."
posted by Miko 24 January | 15:43
'Politics and the English Language' is brilliant, and Down and Out in Paris and London also really good.

Oh, and I'm drinking a cup of mint green tea as we speak.
posted by box 24 January | 15:46
Ice tea? You mean sweet 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.

On preview, box already said it better.
posted by mygothlaundry 24 January | 15:47
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!
posted by iconomy 24 January | 15:48
Miko -- do you say "iced water" or "ice water"?
posted by JanetLand 24 January | 15:50
Teaż

Rather "Hits from the Bong" — Cypress Hill

or more appropriately, Girl Fight — Brooke Valentine
posted by alicesshoe 24 January | 15:52
I agree with Orwell, and not only on the subject of tea (and sugar), but also on some other things as well.
posted by Daniel Charms 24 January | 15:55
Whoops, I missed that bit in your answer Miko, sorry.
posted by JanetLand 24 January | 15:55
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.
posted by occhiblu 24 January | 15:56
I'm reassured that I am in the Orwell camp on the great "add milk to tea/add tea to milk" debate.
posted by greycap 24 January | 15:57
Dig: nifty link on the elision of "d" in "iced." And the American Dialect Society gets in on the discussion, too. The Maven's Word of the Day called '-ed' The Vanishing Suffix.
posted by Miko 24 January | 15:58
When I moved to Texas, I expected sweet tea to be the grossest thing on Earth (I rarely put sugar in my iceD tea). But, really, it's delicious.

Miko - at Starbucks they've started to serve iced tea + lemonade. You can get it with green tea as well as black. Simply De-Licious.
posted by muddgirl 24 January | 16:06
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.
posted by Miko 24 January | 16:08
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).
posted by Miko 24 January | 16:12
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.

Mmmm, icy coffee.
posted by getoffmylawn 24 January | 16:15
Miko, I think you'll find it's called "crush ice." :)
posted by occhiblu 24 January | 16:20
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.
posted by omiewise 24 January | 16:21
I just had to make a cup of peppermint tea after reading all this.

I've never read any of Orwell's essays before- I look forward to checking out more of 'em.
posted by BoringPostcards 24 January | 16:26
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".
posted by taz 24 January | 16:29
Orwell has it exactly right on how to make tea.

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.
posted by essexjan 24 January | 16:35
Miko, I think you'll find it's called "crush ice." :)

It tastes so good with fry chicken and mash potatoes!

Hehehe
posted by Miko 24 January | 16:53
Miko, I don't think you appreciate what "a sit down" is in some areas, or much of New Jersey.
posted by paulsc 24 January | 17:15
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'!)
posted by taz 24 January | 17:16
lol at Paulsc's "New Jersey" sit down link being about a guy being intimidated by prostitutes.

And now for some tea.
posted by CitrusFreak12 24 January | 17:24
Woo! Hot taz!

I keep trying to cut out more sugar from my diet. I'm trying to work my way down to black coffee, but I just don't really believe it'll ever happen.
posted by occhiblu 24 January | 17:26
Go taz go! That's awesome.

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.
posted by jrossi4r 24 January | 17:26
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.
posted by scody 24 January | 17:33
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....
posted by dodgygeezer 24 January | 17:34
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.
posted by Miko 24 January | 17:36
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.
posted by mudpuppie 24 January | 17:38
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.
posted by occhiblu 24 January | 17:39
Yeah, I really like just a hint of sweet. It should stop short of tooth-hurtingly sweet.
posted by Miko 24 January | 17:40
"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.
posted by paulsc 24 January | 17:58
Bleah!
posted by Miko 24 January | 18:05
THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE ICE(D) THINGS!
posted by Eideteker 24 January | 18:39
Heeee heeee heeee.
posted by occhiblu 24 January | 18:43
okay, that's like the third time eid has made laugh, yes, out loud, tonight. I really needed to laugh, too.

Also, dodgy and flo made me spit things at my monitor. In a good way.
posted by taz 24 January | 18:53
and specklet's hosannas.

See? There is a reason to go on.
posted by taz 24 January | 19:39
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.
posted by Eideteker 24 January | 21:58
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.
posted by brujita 25 January | 01:01
diet soda doesn't really quench my thirst.

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.
posted by Miko 25 January | 09:22
Damn, I really need some chapped stick.
posted by Eideteker 25 February | 21:27
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