this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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[–] beefcat 51 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)
  • 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.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] givesomefucks 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The process of a soda fountain makes already it cold.

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

[–] beefcat 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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 🙂

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I just usually order 2 or 3 right away when I see that shit. What am I, an ant?

[–] GamingChairModel 2 points 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 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] rigatti 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you considered that that may be a lot of tea?

[–] joel_feila 3 points 1 year ago
[–] FooBarrington 5 points 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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] magnusrufus 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So dang euro you don't even want ice in your ice.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

lmao. I meant to writer water but accidentally wrote something way better. Keeping that now.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

No ice is because it's cold as balls here most of the time anyway

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Idk about Berlin, but I’m from the french riviera and we do put ice cubes everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Fait trop chaud dans le sud, c'est pr ça.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And by "everywhere" you mean in the pastis.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Indeed. The Ricard is the best seller when it comes to beverages in France. More than the bottled water Cristaline. Isn’t that surprising

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I see I've met my opposite

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ice cubes kinda suck.

But some places in the US have crushed ice and it's seriously the nicest thing ever.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

McDonalds did refills for a while but then stopped again, idk why ¯\(ツ)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know for Germany but free soda refills are illegal in France

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why?

Why does France seemingly propose/executes the worst and/or weirdest things.

This is almost on this level: https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2023/06/26/france-browser-website-blocking/

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Because sugary drink are one of the leading cause of obesity, so rather than inciting people and children to drink more soda it's much healthier to offer free water and paid drinks.

With the same idea vending machines with soda or sugary snacks are not allowed in schools anymore.

On the other hand everything that France government is doing around internet and privacy law is pure nonsense, I agree with that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 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.