The discovery of 'Iced Tea' - Athens & Berlin

Iced Tea : Written in July 2015 in reference to August 2004

The 38 degree heat today here in Berlin, where I have been working for the last three weeks, saw me buying iced tea at the supermarket.  This caused me to reflect on the first time I purchased iced tea. It was the evening of the 20th August.  I was in Athens attending the 2004 Olympic Games.  It was my first day of three there. That evening I had attended the Women's Artistic Gymnastics all round final and then drank beer with a guy I had met on the plane that morning, flying out.  He had been returning home, from his work in the UK, for a summer break, to work as a Games volunteer. The Olympic park was not too busy that night.  There was a calmness to the Olympic Park that night.  The heat of the night air, had lowered to a more bearable level, and in it hung a sense of the unknown, the undiscovered.

Traveling back to my hotel which was a bit of a dive, I recalled that the room did not have a kettle… and I needed tea.  I searched and could find nothing other than a McDonalds open. I never frequent McDonalds, so I did not know how it worked, but I was desperate for a cuppa and for some reason thought I was sure to find one there. On entering I approached the counter and requested a cup of tea. I had  resigned myself to knowing it would be served in a cardboard cup, but I had gone some 12 hours without tea, so experiencing withdrawal, so I was prepared. What I was not prepared for however, was that tea was not on the menu. I was somewhat vexed at the casual response of the person serving, to my request for tea.  It took me a moment to comprehend the McDonalds menu as one designed for a very different climate and culture to that of the UK.  I was being very ‘British’ and it was time to be European.

Seeing my obvious disappointment and distress the server announced that he did have iced tea. "Iced tea' I heard myself retort, whilst simultaneously trying to retract the words as they emerged from my mouth... I had a choice: iced tea or nothing. I was very thirsty so I bought two bottles. Taking them back to my hotel I fell onto the bed exhausted and dripping with sweat, opened the bottle lid and drank.    The delights of iced tea were discovered … tea according to culture and climate. 

I never have hot tea with lemon so I figured I couldn't do iced tea with lemon either, so it was peach iced tea. 

So in Berlin, where during the month of July, for three years running, temperatures have hit thirty and higher, my Friday night supermarket purchases have included iced tea.  For this discovery I have to thank you Athens, and begrudgingly, McDonalds.

I drank iced tea as I wrote this…