I've experienced that in a practical setting by drinking cups of tea on warm days, it really does work. I will only add ice to a drink if I want the drink to be cold though. For things like fruit juice or pop, it normally tastes better cold.

Water tastes fine to me room temperature or ice cold, but sometimes even if it doesn't work biologically, I do like the psychological effect of cold water on a hot day.

I think the issue with ice in beverages (as opposed to just having an ice-cold beverage without ice) is some kind of tactile conditioning thing. The reason I absolutely hate ice in beverages is because of the way the ice hits your lips, and/or sneaks into the mouth once it has melted down a bit. I suspect it's these factors that Americans are conditioned to expect in a drink.


It was mentioned in some thread recently that including massive amounts of ice in a beverage is an attempt to increase profits (by reducing the amount of actual 'beverage' dispensed) but I think it's what most people want. I have several friends who ask for a second full glass of ice along with their chosen (ice packed) beverage, so they can keep re-stocking the ice in whatever beverage they are drinking. I would bet it costs them more to produce ice than it does to dispense those vile 'fountain' drinks.

I do much prefer the drink itself to be cold, rather than having ice in it. The ice itself doesn't bother me, I'd just rather not deal with it at all.

Almost certainly in restaurants, they'll use lots of ice to reduce the amount of liquid dispensed (pointless with water, of course). But then they'll offer free refills which kind of cancels it out. If I'm at a fast food place though, where they have the self serve fountains, I put a tiny amount of ice in because the drink comes out cold anyway.

But my wife will take a can of pop at home and pour it into a glass full of ice. She still gets all the pop but the flavour gets watered down before she's done. It just seems pointless to me, I just throw a bunch of cans in the freezer for 20 minutes and they're ready to go

Love that scene.

Colonel: ... (He takes his drink from the waiter.) What's this?
Waiter: Gin tonic, sir.
Colonel: This is gin tonic and ice!
Waiter: Gin tonics always have ice, sir.
Colonel: Gin tonic does not always have ice. Americans always have ice and I am not a bloody American. Get me another.

I do drink water out of the Brita jug as our tsp water is not nice and ruins a good cup of tea if not filtered. In the summer I keep a jug of filtered water in the fridge.

Haha, oh so very true, yup she's the USC and a trip to Mac D's or wherever the drink is the same, 4478432 tons of ice, and a dribble of pop.


The crazy thing is she'll leave the pop in the car, which being California melts in a nano second, then drinks the boiling hot fluid without batting an eyelid.....argh women (the yank variety)


As for drinks I will have a cuppa no matter the temperature!

There's no point even trying to understand that behaviour

99% of the time, I'm perfectly fine with water. I'll have a pop if I want a bit of a change and I like orange or pineapple juice in the morning.

Slightly. There were 113 guests. At least half of whom flew into the state for this event.

My wife won't have water from the fridge but wants ice in everything she drinks. Still haven't worked that one out.

Also coke from the fridge still needs ice, who would have known?

This probably belongs in WTF America but


Iced tea, iced coffee.................I rest my case my case m'lud

Maybe in time they will microwave their coke. I find a lot of Americans still afraid of microwaves.

That reminds me of the time we got really, really bored when we were kids and we decided to freeze some coke in the ice cube tray, then microwave the frozen coke to see what it tasted like.

Not good, if you're wondering.

Ok, call me at 2pm.

Sure, will do!

Hi, you've reached the voice mail of...

Yeah sure, call me back while I'm about to have lunch.