To think you don't bring your own tea to a coffee shop

[baristagirl]

AIBU to think that you have to be a CF to ask for a teapot of boiling water and a glass as you've brought your own teabag with you in a coffee shop.
Not to drip feed, 3 of CF's friends did buy drinks.
To me this is like taking your own booze into a pub and asking them for a glass with ice for it.

Only CF if they expected it free of charge.

On the fence with this one. They may only br able to drink a certain tea. If drinks were bought along side I wouldn't see it as a hugr deal!

Yeah it’s a bit off but hopefully the shop charged them the standard price for tea anyway.

My Mum does this. She can’t drink anything with cafeine and it is safer to bring her own. She always gets a biscuits or something to go with it, so she’s not just turning up for the water.

Often cafes don’t have de-caff tea. I sometimes take my own tea bag but offer to pay for hot water etc. After all they’re still supplying milk etc and will still have to factor in washing up costs.

They should be charged the price of a cup of tea, less the price (say 5p, being generous) of the cost of the tea bag. I don’t think buying or biscuit or cake to go with it makes it ok.

I wouldn't do it, but if the shop had an issue with it, they could always start charging for the hot water.

Yes they expected it for free and seemed to think it was absurd I told them it wasn't really the done thing.
They didn't mention that they had a special diet, I may have felt different if they had have said that.

I actually don’t know if my Mum usually pays for the water or not. She may well do. I’ve never really thought about it before but now you mention it, it seems likely.

What tea bag was it? Did she even ask if they had that type first? Rude

A friend did this when she was drinking some herbal breastfeeding tea. She did ask for a regular cup of tea with the bag on the side then subbed in her own tea instead. Decaf tea would also be a perfectly valid reason to do this.

It’s only ok if you’re actually paying though, either for a cup of tea or perhaps you could just ask for the hot water if you bought food. It’s cheeky as fuck to just expect it for free. You’re taking up a seat that could be used by a paying customer, you’re served by a paid staff member, your cup needs to be washed up etc. etc.

I don’t think buying or biscuit or cake to go with it makes it ok

doesn't it? So if I went into your cafe with a friend who ordered tea and cake, and I only wanted cake because I wasn't thirsty, you wouldn't serve me?

I didn't realise there was a law that said that if you order something to eat you must also order something to drink (or vice versa).

Don't know, but just want to add- we were in a cafe in St Ives and asked for extra hot water as my mother liked her tea very week, and was told it would be £1.50 extra. ......I've never got over that and I really need to move on from it... There were 6 of us and we had all ordered drinks and food.

"weak' even !

She didn't buy anything, we have a selection of herbal teas she could have chose from.
They seemed to find it hilarious that I said they couldn't do it. They were causing quite a scene so I said that I would do it on this occasion but not to ask again.

I think it's rude not to pay for the hot water and cup. I would just pay for the cup of tea but tell them to leave the tea bag on the side as I have my own 'special' bag.

I used to do this at uni in central London as it was not possible to get caffeine free drinks on site. They charged 50p for the cup and hot water which seemed fair enough.

I’ve done this when a cafe hasn’t had decaf tea. I’ve always offered to pay, but there have been occasions when i simply can’t take caffeine, and still want to be able to have a cuppa with my friends! Nice to know I’m unreasonable though.

I do this. I don't drink normal tea because I don't like it. I drink fruit tea but I'm very fussy and there's only one brand I like, which no cafe ever stocks, so I tend to carry my own teabags with me. So I'll ask for a cup of hot water, but will always order and pay for something else as well so I'm still spending money. I've never had anyone object, but if they did I'd be happy to pay the equivalent of a cup of tea.

In fact you'd hate me, OP - I'm teetotal so when if I go to pubs with friends, and my friends offer to get me a drink, sometimes I ask for a glass of water. From the tap

In principle they might only be able to eat and drink certain things (I cant have caffeine, for instance), so this should be accommodated but they should expect to be charged for the water/other overheads.

If they'd explained about the diet and were part of a big group all spending money or had bought a meal maybe I'd let it go out of goodwill but they were certainly unreasonable to expect this.

My mother sometimes asks for a pot of hot water, just because that's what she likes to drink, no tea just the water

You are also paying for the wages, overheads, etc, not just the cost of the items, so I would expect to be charged the normal price and think it was cheeky to expect it for nothing.

In fact you'd hate me, OP - I'm teetotal so when if I go to pubs with friends, and my friends offer to get me a drink, sometimes I ask for a glass of water. From the tap wink

OP may or may not hate you, but the landlord definitely does. I think that's really unacceptable unless you're buying either other drinks (I think it's ok to have one orange juice in the pub and then one tap water) or food.

Put a lot of hot water on the menu . So you don't ask to do it for free .

Bennetts Lemon Water TripAdvisor response
YWNBU to expect them to pay.