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I came across this quote about "nothin' tea" from "The Martian", though I haven't read the book.
I started the day with some nothin’ tea. Nothin’ tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin’.
I googled for "nothin' tea", and most hits I got were for the book.
Are there any more common terms for this concept, apart from "hot water"? An example usage would be
My grandma sometimes has ____ - not because she's stuck on Mars, but because of problems she has with tea.
I believe this word is just a humorous phrase made up by the author as a way to show that the main character has limited resources (he's on mars) and so is not able to drink regular tea, or other desirable food items.
Adam's Ale is a colloquial term for plain water to drink - from the idea of the biblical Adam having nothing else to drink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams_ale)
Nothing Tea is much like the basis for Stone Soup.
From Wikipedia
The travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire.
In the story, the stone is inert and makes no difference to the water. In the beginning, Stone Soup is the same as Nothing Tea. But then more is added to Stone Soup, where nothing is available to add to Nothing Tea.
