But it is an essential part of ice tea. Hot tea can be good with or without sugar, imo. Depends on the tea and my mood.
Tea does not need sugar, whether hot or iced (at least I don’t know anyone irl that puts sugar in tea (actually I just thought of one person but I don’t like them or talk to them much)). Sweetened drinks are extremely unhealthy and there’s probably a reason most places in the US serve unsweetened ice tea.
On hot summer days I sometimes drink 3l of ice tea. That would be extremely bad if it was sweetened.
In my head (as a German), ice tea is almost always store bought like lipton ice tea. You very rarely get anything else anywhere. Restaurants don’t usually serve home made ice tea. It’s a soft drink. When I make myself tea at home, it’s almost always hot. Unsweetened black tea just tastes awful when it’s cold. The hot tea sometimes gets sugar, like when I make myself lemon tea (black tea + lemon juice + sugar), although I do like to use stevia instead of sugar for the same health reasons because I sometimes drink 2-3 pots (1.5l each) a day in winter and that would indeed be a lot of sugar.
