In the South East, they bring you sweetened (usually far too sweetened for my tastes) iced tea. This is amazingly universal.
I live in NC and have been probing the border for years.
For “nicer” restaurants, the universal sweet tea boundary seems to be precisely at the NC/VA border.
When you said south east I was thinking south east Asia and was trying to decipher what countries NC and VA were, until I realised you were American expecting everyone else to be American and understand American state codes.
Expecting everyone to know the US states is just us getting revenge on Europe for demanding we keep track of which products are named after geographic regions and which are just recipes immigrants from those places brought to America.
If you’re not in Europe, sorry you got caught up in our couple’s spat.
Netherlands: you get asked what kind, or hot water with a box teabags to pick from.
Iced tea is a seperate thing entirely.
“Black, green, peppermint, chamomile, melissa, ginger?”
10 minutes later you get a hot cup with a bag in it, no clue how long it’s been sitting in there already. Usually a bag of sugar and/or a cookie on the saucer.
Germany.
You get shown where the hot water and teabags are, go do it for yourself, we’re all peasants in Sweden.
