• beefcat@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago
    • No ice in their water or soda
    • No refills on fountain drinks

    These are the things that stood out to me whenever I have visited.

    I spent a good while in Berlin once and one of my favorite restaurants was this Australian themed place by the IMAX theater just because I could get a nice big Diet Coke with ice in it. Their kangaroo sandwich also wasn’t half bad.

    • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      We’re not getting refills anyway, I’d rather not have 80% ice with a bit of soda

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The process of a soda fountain makes already it cold.

        Ice is completely pointless and without it you don’t need refills

        • beefcat@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Ice keeps the soda cold throughout your meal.

          In Europe my soda was often pretty close to room temperature by the time my food arrived. Not great if you like your beverages “ice cold”. But I get the impression Europeans don’t like their drinks as cold as we do in the US to begin with.

          We also use larger glassware in the US, which offsets much of the volume displaced by ice.

          So no, ice is not “completely pointless”, it’s just a cultural difference 🙂

          • SHITPOSTING_ACCOUNT@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            larger glassware

            Thinking of a typical US fast food soda cup: understatement. For comparison, a German McDonald’s “Large” (the largest available) is 0.5 liters (17 oz). In the US, a “Medium” is 18 oz (0.53 l) or 21 oz (0.62 l) depending on who you ask, and, it goes to 30 (0.89 l) or 32 oz (0.95 l). And I’ve seen complaints that Wendy’s shrank their large from 40 oz (1.18 l) to 35 oz (1.04 l). That’s not a cup, that’s a bucket!

            A sit down restaurant in Europe will typically have soft drink serving sizes from 0.2 to 0.4 liters. The 0.2 is… unsatisfactory.

        • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Ice holds it at 0°C though. For drinks that are delicious at 0°C but aren’t as good at 5°C, that ice makes a big difference, especially if you’ve got a cup that’s supposed to last 10+ minutes outdoors.

        • joel_feila@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I drink 2 pitchers of tea with a meal. I will need refills with or with out ice in my glass.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            According to Google, 1 pitcher has a volume of 1.89 liters. If we assume they’re mostly full (1.8l), that would be 3.6l of tea. It’s recommended that you don’t drink more than roughly 1l per hour.

            You either eat very slowly, or you’re doing bad things to your body.

    • KSP Atlas@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      It’s a thing cause its not really as normalized, people don’t really drink enough to get free refills in some places (although many places have free refills) and people here are generally used to warmer colas, although many people and places do add ice

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Fountain drink: Depends on the restaurant. Some Burger Kings and McDs did have it, some removed it (probably exploited)

      I don’t want ice in my damn soda or ice.
      If you like it, ask the staff for some. They will usually give it to you.

    • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I’m a fucking fiend for ice in my water, like I literally will fill the cup full of ice first, then put water in the space that’s left. When I visited Europe it was fucking rough getting used to never having ice. And if you asked for it (which I tried not to do, but I caved a few times) they’d give you like 3 cubes

      • Solivine@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        I absolutely hate ice in my drinks and have to always request it without or it gets added, this is in the UK

    • HamSwagwich@showeq.com
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      1 year ago

      Or the fact that you have to pay for fucking water. It’s a God damned human right but you have to pay the same for water as any other drink at restaurants in Europe. By the glass. And the glasses hold exactly one to two mouthfulls of water.