If you've bothered to read any of my previous posts, you may be able to surmise that I am sort of a picky eater. Moreover, it's not so much the what I'm picky about but more along the lines of the where. I recently ventured out to one of my favorite lunch haunts which I had not been to in a while, and was seriously looking foreword to it. In fact, all I could think about that morning was how good of a lunch I was going to have. Finally, that time rolled around and I got in my car and drove over there. Hilarity soon ensued.
I've never really noticed since I don't drink the stuff that often, but tea is one of those drinks where there are about as many varieties as there are genders in San Fransisco. That's not a bad thing, but I'm just saying that it makes it highly customizable. You have your regular Earl Gray, your sun tea, sweet tea, green tea, white tea (a personal favorite of mine, regardless of the snobbery or the $1.75 price tag associated with it...fuck you Snapple), and of course the big bad grandad of them all, iced tea. For some reason growing up, I had a serious aversion to iced tea. It just never tasted quite right to my complex four year old palate. Later on, I learned that if you flavored the shit out of it and added about enough sugar to send even the healthiest of people into a diabetic coma, I might be able to choke it down.
Possibly another secret ingredient...
Anyway, returning to my tea story. I had to wait in line since I made the mistake of leaving at 12:30, right in the middle of lunch hour. Whatever, I was hungry and the line was moving at a nice clip. The man at the front of the line (three people before me) placed his order and left. About a good 4 minutes later it was my turn. I ordered and paid, and then made my way over to the soda fountain to get a drink. Who was there, filling up his cup? The man who had ordered five minutes previously. He hadn't even sat down which was evident by the food he was still holding. I watched him fill what was left of his drink (lord only knows what was in there already): ~1/3 Lipton Iced Tea, some coca cola, lemonade, a little bit of mountain dew, and finally to top it all off, some diet cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper. I winced a bit and began to fill my cup with Coke, thinking that his concoction was complete, but I was sorely mistaken. He was only finished with the liquid portion. He then strained out the ice and proceeded to add four packets of sugar. He then took a sip and, after deciding that he better make it a bit more healthy for himself he proceeded to add two packets of Sweet and Low.
I was horrified. I didn't quite know how to react. He looked at me as if what he had just done was completely normal and then sat down at his table. Now, I'm all for individuality, but I'm not sure if a beverage is the best way to express it. That man took obeying your thirst to a whole new level. If your drink has more ingredients and spices in it than most meals prepared on Bravo's Top Chef, something is seriously wrong.
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I don't think we have anything called iced tea here. We have sweet tea and unsweet tea. The word unsweet entertains me.