The default in the deep South is to assume "tea" means sweet tea (though you can get the other if you request it); . . . .
This, and not just in the Deep South. Unsweetened ice tea has often been referred to here as “un-tea.” That said, unsweetened iced tea is usually available.
There even are places that only serve unsweetened iced tea, leaving it to the customer to add sugar if they want to. Clearly such places are run by people who don’t understand that the sugar needs to be there when the tea is steeping to dissolve properly. We always assume the people who do this sort of thing “aren’t from around here.”
Heh. Being diabetic, I am glad to be as far north as I am, and therefore less likely to end up with sweet tea by accident. It still happens one out of ten times, maybe. Which is why I always have to check before leaving a drive-through.
The default in the deep South is to assume "tea" means sweet tea (though you can get the other if you request it); in the North, it's the opposite; and in the middle, such as in St Louis, they ask you every single time, because both are popular and assumptions aren't ever safe.
In the north, "tea" without adjectives means hot tea.
In the American South, unsweet iced tea was great for being non-alcoholic and non-sugary. Almost all restaurants would offer it.
In the UK, there is now a much bigger range of non-alcoholic beer etc, which is great. However, staying sober used to be the cheap option - soft drinks were about 30p - whereas now they don't seem much cheaper than the alcoholic ones.
Blackcurrant and soda is still cheap in pubs, IME. If you're as tight as I am and fancy orange and soda, ask for orange *cordial or you'll get Britvic and it's more expensive
Quite a useful option if you're driving, which most pubs can provide, is clear fizzy lemonade with ice, a slice of lemon and 4 or so drops of Angostura bitters. Angostura is in fact alcoholic and quite strong. So it is not safe if you need to avoid alcohol altogether. Subject to that, though, the alcoholic content of four drops is so small, it should not take you anywhere near the limit for driving.
There isn't the same pressure to drink alcohol in the UK, thanks to a lot of government advertising campaigns on the dangers of drinking and driving. And being female helps: even in this day and age, men are more likely to be pressured into drinking.
It is difficult if your hosts take a rejection of alcohol as a rejection of their hospitality. Being British, in that situation I would say something like 'sorry, I can't drink xyz, have you got any fruit juice/lemonade/whatever.' I agree guests have an obligation to be polite, but it doesn't extend to making yourself ill to avoid upsetting your hosts.
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There even are places that only serve unsweetened iced tea, leaving it to the customer to add sugar if they want to. Clearly such places are run by people who don’t understand that the sugar needs to be there when the tea is steeping to dissolve properly. We always assume the people who do this sort of thing “aren’t from around here.”
In the north, "tea" without adjectives means hot tea.
Blackcurrant and soda is still cheap in pubs, IME. If you're as tight as I am and fancy orange and soda, ask for orange *cordial or you'll get Britvic and it's more expensive
It is difficult if your hosts take a rejection of alcohol as a rejection of their hospitality. Being British, in that situation I would say something like 'sorry, I can't drink xyz, have you got any fruit juice/lemonade/whatever.' I agree guests have an obligation to be polite, but it doesn't extend to making yourself ill to avoid upsetting your hosts.