Americans and ice

[Pradeep bhatt]

During my visit to US couple of years back, I was surprised to people drinking tea, cofee and even water with ice. I am from India and I (and many more I guess) drink tea, cofee hot. Water with ice is also rare. Someone told me that, in US if you want normal water during travel you will have to ask for water "without ice".

[Ulf Dittmer]

Not that I'm American, but coffee and tea are, in fact, mostly drunk hot. Drinking them with ice is mostly a summer thing, so you can get your caffeine kick but not heat up further.

[Henry Wong]

Agreed. Where I am (NYC), coffee and tea are also mostly drunk hot. You can get them cold though -- and sometimes I do get into a mood for them cold -- but it is not very common.

Henry
[ December 01, 2008: Message edited by: Henry Wong ]

[Arvind Mahendra]

They do have a thing for ice. One of them even wrote a song about it.


All right stop collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop yo I don't know
Turn off the lights and I'll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance go rush to the speaker that booms
I'm killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Love it or leave it you better gain weight
You better hit bull's eye the kid don't play
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

CHORUS
Ice ice baby vanillla (x4)

Now that the party is jumping
With the bass kicked in and the vegas are pumpin'
Quick to the point to the point no faking
I'm cooking MC's like a pound of bacon
Burning them if you ain't quick and nimble
I go crazy when I hear a cymbal
And a hi-hat with a souped up tempo
I'm on a roll and it's time to go solo
Rollin' in my 5.0
With my rag-top down so my hair can blow
The girlies on standby waving just to say hi
Did you stop no I just drove by
Kept on pursuing to the next stop
I busted a left and I'm heading to the next block
The block was dead
Yo so I continued to A1A Beachfront Avenue
Girls were hot wearing less than bikinis
Rockman lovers driving Lamborghinis
Jealous 'cause I'm out getting mine
Shay with a guage and Vanilla with a nine
Reading for the chumps on the wall
The chumps acting ill because they're so full of eight balls
Gunshots rang out like a bell
I grabbed my nine all I heard were shells
Falling on the concrete real fast
Jumped in my car slammed on the gas
Bumpet to bumper the avenue's packed
I'm trying to get away before the jackers jack
Police on the scene you know what I mean
They passed me up confronted all the dope fiends
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

REPEAT CHORUS

Take heed 'cause I'm a lyrical poet
Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it
My town that created all the bass sound
Enough to shake and kick holes in the ground
'Cause my style's like a chemical spill
Feasible rhymes that you can vision and feel
Conducted and formed
This is a hell of a concept
We make it hype and you want to step with this
Shay plays on the fade slice like a ninja
Cut like a razor blade so fast other DJs say damn
If my rhyme was a drug I'd sell it by the gram
Keep my composure when it's time to get loose
Magnetized by the mic while I kick my juice
If there was a problem yo I'll solve it
Check out the hook while Shay revolves it

Ice ice baby vanilla
Ice ice baby (oh-oh) vanilla
Ice ice baby vanilla
Ice ice baby vanilla ice
Yo man let's get out of here
Word to your mother
Ice ice baby too cold
Ice ice baby too cold too cold (x2)
Ice ice baby

[Ben Souther]

Other than red wine, I can't think of anything that we drink at room temperature here.
Everything else is either heated or chilled.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Note that Americans, traveling abroad in the summer, wonder why the hell restaurants don't have ice for their drinks! It's hard to fathom why, when it's hot out, people wouldn't want the coldest drinks possible.

[Gregg Bolinger]

I love iced tea. The sweeter the better. Warm tea I can only drink in the winter and still prefer hot chocolate.

[marc weber]

Of course, "ice" is slang for crystal methamphetamine.

[Pat Farrell]

American's like cold stuff, and ice in the drinks is just one example.

Of course, the Brits drink warm beer, mostly because they have Lucas refrigerators

[Pradeep bhatt]

What about water ? Everyone drinks with ice right ?

[Mike Simmons]

Water is served with ice by default, yes. That's not exactly "everyone" obviously. At home I often simply pour a glass of water out of the faucet, at room temperature. But in a restaurant it will almost always be served with ice (unless you request otherwise). I'm not sure why this is worth a - yes, use of ice is common here. How exciting. :roll:

[Jelle Klap]

Originally posted by Mike Simmons:
Yes, use of ice is common here. How exciting. :roll:

Allie Fox would probably disagree

[Paul Clapham]

Originally posted by marc weber:
Of course, "ice" is slang for crystal methamphetamine.

You frequently have black ice on the roads around where you live, don't you?

[Eric Pascarello]

When I was in Switzerland, I got tired of asking for water without gas.

Eric

[marc weber]

Originally posted by Paul Clapham:
You frequently have black ice on the roads around where you live, don't you?

If only you had said "streets" instead of "roads."

Ice --> meth --> street drugs...

[Peter Rooke]

"Of course, the Brits drink warm beer, mostly because they have Lucas refrigerators" - but at least we can get proper beer. And anyway the climate is only ever warn for about three weeks each year :-)

[Joanne Neal]

Originally posted by Pat Farrell:
Of course, the Brits drink warm beer, mostly because they have Lucas refrigerators

Wow. I'd never heard of Lucas refrigerators before and had to Google it to find out what it meant. Bit of a surprise as I used to live a couple of miles from a Lucas factory.

[Pat Farrell]

Originally posted by Peter Rooke:
the climate is only ever warn for about three weeks each year :-)

Yes, my sainted mother went to Ireland looking for ancestors and brought be a wonderful Irish sweater. I can't wear it, its never that cold and damp here.

[R K Singh]

Originally posted by Prad Dip:
in US if you want normal water during travel you will have to ask for water "without ice".

I dont know how come no Indian mentioned this to you.
It is not "Without ice" but you have to ask for water and then say clearly "No Ice".

I may be wrong but I noticed following:
Everything is formal(jeans, t-shirt, or any clothe) till you wear sneakers.

Hot tea(with some flavour) with "concentrated milk". (I died to drink hot normal tea without any flavour, I needed just plain tea with normal milk.)
[ December 04, 2008: Message edited by: R K Singh ]

[Mike Simmons]

[Peter]: but at least we can get proper beer.

We can get proper beer in the states too. Not from any of the major US manufacturers that I can think of, but there are many, many small US brewers, often quite good. (There are also plenty of imports available i.) The mass-produced US stuff (Budweiser, Miller, Coors) often seems to be targeted at some lowest common denominator of blandness, but so what? There are plenty of better alternatives available if you look for them.

[Mike Simmons]

[RKS]: It is not "Without ice" but you have to ask for water and then say clearly "No Ice".

"Without ice" seems pretty clear too - I can't see any problem with that. Hardly something that needs correction, I think.

[RKS]: I may be wrong but I noticed following: Everything is formal(jeans, t-shirt, or any clothe) till you wear sneakers.

I'm not sure what this means. I don't think many (any?) people here would consider jeans or a t-shirt to be "formal". Ever. But they might well consider them perfectly acceptable attire for work, or social gatherings, or other events. Or they might not. But being acceptable is not the same as being formal. If anything, people wearing such attire probably consider it very informal, and like it that way.

As for "till you wear sneakers" - I don't understand this at all. In my experience, people wearing jeans and t-shirts often wear sneakers (or other athletic or informal-style shoe). That's fine. There's no rule I know of that says you have to keep formal shoes despite wearing informal shirts and pants.

That said, standards of dress and other behavior do vary by region within the US, and also from company to company. Maybe you experienced something different from my experience. But so far, I can't really tell what you mean here.

[RKS]: Hot tea(with some flavour) with "concentrated milk". (I died to drink hot normal tea without any flavour, I needed just plain tea with normal milk.)

It's true that such a combination is not likely to be offered directly on the menu at most US establishments. But (a) it really wouldn't be hard to convince a waiter in a restaurant to accept an order for that, assuming that they have both tea and milk on the menu. At worst, the could just charge the price for a glass of whichever is more expensive, tea or milk. And (b) it would also be really easy to just make this yourself.

Or perhaps when you say "tea" and "milk", they mean something different to you than they do to me. If so, calling something "normal" tea or "normal" milk wouldn't really be very informative. But I'm still not sure what you meant to say here.

[R K Singh]

[Mike]"Without ice" seems pretty clear too - I can't see any problem with that. Hardly something that needs correction, I think.

May be it is accent problem or whatever but if you say without ice, you will get ice

[Mike]:That said, standards of dress and other behavior do vary by region within the US, and also from company to company.
You are right.

[Mike]But I'm still not sure what you meant to say here.
Tea is a very common drink in India but flavoured tea is not so common.

Wanted a Indian tea. Boil water, add tea leaves, add sugar, little normal milk, some ginger and basil.
Or you may say that I was looking for home made tea, and I was not getting normal plain tea leaves (all were flavoured).
[ December 04, 2008: Message edited by: R K Singh ]

[Arvind Mahendra]

Aside from the song dedicated to ice by Vanilla Ice I posted above, Its important to note Ice did and still plays a very important role in U.S. pop culture, particularly in the hip hop/gangster community(alot of American ranchers must be knowing about this). These youths in America even like to refer to diamonds and jewels as 'ice' I've been told. I guess something worth thousand of dollars still can't command the level of coolness that cubes of frozen water can. I agree, definately an ice fetish.

[Abhinav Srivastava]

Originally posted by R K Singh:

It is not "Without ice" but you have to ask for water and then say clearly "No Ice".

I have heard people asking for "Water WITH NO ice." I pray the Queen forgives them.

[margaret gillon]

My parents are from Canada and they don't use ice in their water. They think we are very strange to want our water so cold.

[Mike Simmons]

The Queen would be completely out of her jurisdiction, of course. And I think she realizes she has better things to to with her time. Like trying to reestablish credibility amongst her own people, rather than amongst former colonials who long ago threw off her yoke.

[Frank Silbermann]

Originally posted by Mike Simmons:
The Queen would be completely out of her jurisdiction, of course. And I think she realizes she has better things to to with her time. Like trying to reestablish credibility amongst her own people, rather than amongst former colonials who long ago threw off her yoke.

It's kind of sad to think that Royals should have to pander to the people seeking popularity. Only two or three lifetimes ago, advocating removal of the monarch was a hanging offence. And, of course, Diana could have been beheaded for adultery.