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.

If there's a fuss next time I'd charge half the price of a cup of tea and explain that this is to cover the electricity to heat the water, detergent and water to clean the cup and pot, heating and bills for the cafe and also your time. That should make it clearer.

Otherwise they can bring a flask of hot water and drink it on the pavement outside.

Depends why. A relative can only have certain tea due to allergies and most places don’t sell it. So no in those circumstances but should still pay for the water and service

A "horrible aftertaste for days" - I get that you might not like the tea, or have specific requirements but let's not exaggerate!

Literary - that is entirely different. You are paying for a meal then. If I'm driving, I'll often have tap water. Mainly because I like to drink a glass of water with my meal, but also because I don't really like the sweetness of juices or pops. However, you are paying for a meal then, so that is fine.

I do think pick your battles. If 3 friends all had food and beverages then I would have supplied a cup and hot water for the 4th. The bigger picture is whether you should alienate the other 3.

When family come and visit me here in The Netherlands they do this as i have only seen one place (an Irish/British restaurant) over here that servers proper British/Irish tea.They are reasonably happy to play for the hot water.

Not quite the same thing, but when I'm in Greece, I don't have any Internet at home, so I spent quite a lot of time in the Internet café, but because of my visual impairment, I can't actually use their computers. I have to use my own iPad. I did ask them if I could pay for my Internet use on my own iPad, and they said no. So what I end up doing is just buying coffee, after coffee, or whatever else they have. That way, I don't feel so bad sitting there for a long time.

I think with the TeaI would have just offered to pay for the tea, but explained that I had my own. If I needed to do that. If I had a special diet or something. Or, in some cases. I have asked for a very random things not on the menu, this is in Southeast Asia, and they would charge me for the thing I ordered. Even though it wasn't listed. They would have to make up a price though.

My mum sometimes does this as not everywherassells herbal tea. She always offers to pay the price of a cup of tea minus a teabag.

I do this - I ask if they have decaf earl grey- if so great. If not I have my own in my bag.

Just add cup of Hot water with/without lemon $$ and Pot of hot water with/without lemon $$ and Extra pot of water with tea order $$ to the menu/blackboard
then there is no confusion and no misunderstandings and should stop some of the CF's who want it for free

Nah I don't think it's cheeky, it's only hot water after all.

I don't really get the argument that this is ok if you don't really like the kind of tea they offer. That's like taking a takeaway coffee into a pub that doesn't do hot drinks, or like taking a bottle of beer into a cafe. If as a consumer you don't like any of the products on offer then you don't go to that place, you don't just turn up with your own instead.

Tayto, it's not only hot water, as nearly everyone has pointed out. Where has the cup, the saucer, the spoon, the chair, the table, the staff, the lighting, the heating, the......... come from?

And my guide for all CFery is what if everyone did this? .

Itsallgravy I pointed the aftertaste out to the girl on the till when on the ferry last week. She commented that lots of people have said this over the past year since the coffee/tea had changed. I am not exaggerating, if I drink the coffee or tea sold on the DFDS ferries from Dover to either Dunkirk or Calais, I have a nasty aftertaste for days. The ferry is the only place I've noticed it, and when I bring my own tea bags, the problem doesn't arise, ergo it's their tea and coffee.

I wouldn't do it.but I sometimes wish I was daring enough to lol

I always buy a cup of tea, and tell them not to bother with the tea bag. No where has ever minded.

Starbucks were vaguely sheepish that they didn’t do decaf tea.

The takeaway bakery I worked at years ago charged the price of a cup of tea for hot water. People used to come in and ask for a takeaway cup of hot water then add their own teabag. It wasn't just the odd one or two, it was several a day so that's why they started charging. Funnily enough people stopped asking.

Imo if you want a cup of tea with your own teabag then you should take your own flask of hot water (obviously not sitting in a cafe.)!

As long as they pay (the cost of the tea bag is a tiny fraction of the cost of a pot of tea in a cafe) I don't see a problem.

A friend did this when she was drinking some herbal breastfeeding tea

What on earth is 'herbal breastfeeding tea'?

I have absolutely no bloody idea, apparently some sort of tea that’s supposed to help increase your milk supply... smelt a bit dodgy though!

If I'm driving I always drink tap water, I don't like coke or orange juice etc but I make sure whoever is getting the round in asks.

However when I'm not driving I can drink my body weight in gin so the landlord/lady doesn't miss out

I'd never do that in a tea shop though, I'd ask for the tea I want and they always have that or something as a substitute.

It's CFery. Just charge for hot water or a pot of hot water and put it on the menu and the CFers disappear. Slice of lemon, 5p, too.

I think the aftertaste thing is probably the water and not the tea bag, especially the water on a cross channel ferry it’s not like it’s from a tap more likely to be a tank.

I often take my own teabag, but I do expect to pay!