"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

Something that occurred to me the other day with regards to replicators.

Why would Picard need to specify "Earl Grey. Hot" when ordering tea? If the computer can recognize an individual surely it would be able to remember their preferences. All Picard should have needed to say was "tea".

Of course if that were the case then we would have been deprived of one of Picard's trademark lines.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

holy crap I'm drinking some right now! haha

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

Yeah, you'd have thought they'd have replicator 'bookmarks'; maybe Picard could confuse people by ordering Tea, Earl Grey, Hot but a pint of lager appears on the replicator, "Don't worry," says Picard, "it's Kaliber; only the beer gets drunk" ;-)

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

People don't always drink their drinks the same way everytime.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

Right, so only then would they need to specify. In my opinion it's kinda like going to a coffee shop where the staff know you and get your coffee without asking. It's only when you want something different that you need to tell them.

Just my two cents.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

Yeah, I hate that though, being anticipated by servers announcing your order as soon as you walk in. It feels like they can't be bothered to wait for a regular customer to think about his order.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

Didn't help him look more like a Frenchman. I know, cliches and such, but still....

Maybe he was drinking Earl Grey for the first time, I don't know. Or he usually drinks it properly, with milk, and was feeling adventurous. :)

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

They don't? I would think that most of the time you'd take your tea the same way. I know I have my coffee the same way every day without deviation. The only time it changes up is when I move to iced coffee for the summer months.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

I never drink anything but iced green tea but my wife drinks hot tea in the mornings and then iced tea during the day so I guess it just depends on the person.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

I think Tea. Earl Grey. Hot is a very Americans thing to say. Everyone in the rest of the world when ordering tea knows it is severed hot, Americans presume it is cold and have to specify if they want it hot. Kinda strange as the rest of the tea drinking world always serves tea hot. Living in Canada I always find it amusing when an American orders tea in a restaurant, as a former waiter I enjoyed the look on our southern neighbours faces when I brought them the tea as they were always shocked it is served hot. Here as in England and much of the world if you want an Iced Tea you have to specifically order it in that way. So for myself whenever I hear Picard using the catch phrase, I assume only an American writer could have come up with something like that.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

It's just Picard's way of doing things. I'm sure the computer could figure it out without the extra specifications.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

I tend to agree, I think it was more of a habit than anything else.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

Same thing in America. I've never ever heard of anybody ordering TEA and someone getting confused that it's not supposed to be hot. I waitressed years ago and when someone asked for tea I never said would you like that tea hot or cold? When we want cold tea we say iced-tea. We always say iced-tea on this side on the pond...always! The only thing we may ask about the ice tea is if it's sweetened or not. Can I get an Amen from my fellow Americans on this very very important issue.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

The sequence of Picards words make me think of how the US military describes supply items.

If I had to guess about this habit, I'd wager that Picard got a huge cup or glass of dissapointment early in his career and from that point on was quite explicit with the replicator about his tea drinking needs.

Re: "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot." Did Picard really need to say it?
 

It depends on the kind of restaurant. A lot of places that serve iced-tea don't have regular ol' hot tea. But yeah, usually (in Texas, at least) people say "iced tea" (which is assumed unsweetened) or they say "sweet tea" (which is assumed to be cold, or "iced"). Occasionally, if you ask for "iced tea," the server will follow up with "sweetened or un(sweetened)?" A lot of fountain machines have some sort of unsweetened iced tea (with lemons, sugar, and artificial sweetener nearby) or sweetened, flavoured (lemon, raspberry, peach, etc.) iced tea as an option. Sometimes (especially in the sweltering, Texas summer heat) I stock my refrigerator with cans of sweet, lemon Brisk iced tea. The best place to get sweet tea in the US is at Chicken Express, a fastfood chain where it's brewed fresh every day and can be purchased by the gallon. CE is also unique in that the fountain machines have delicious Dublin Dr. Pepper. That's been my experience, anyway.

Also, regular hot tea is nasty. Whoever figured out that adding ice made it 1000x better was a true genius, in every sense of the word.