I never have lived in the South, but during visits to my grandmother (who spent most of her life in NC and GA) I did develop a taste for sweet tea.
Until fairly recently it was unavailable where I lived, except in self-consciously “Southern” restaurants (we didn;t have many). Then McDonald’s introduced it to their menu, and it made for a nice occasional treat.
But! Once in a while the taste is very very different from what I expect. I’m not good at describing taste, but the sweet tea I’m sold sometimes has a noticeably different taste–almost tinny, for want of a better word, nothing like the usual and nothing like what I always had in the Southeast. I don’t much like it. I’ve asked a handful of employees why this is so, and they all say they have no idea. A couple of them insist that all the restaurants make it the same way.
The most likely thing I can think of is that the sweetener is different. They’re using an artificial sweetener, Splenda or something, instead of sugar. Or it’s made with liquid corn syrup. Or the other way around. Or I guess maybe the tea is different? Seems less likely somehow. Well, the truth is I have no clue. If anybody does have an idea, I’d like to hear it.
FWIW, I ran into this most recently this week at a McDonalds outside Waterbury, CT, and have also had the weird version a couple of times in Buffalo, NY. But I don’t know that it’s restaurant specific: seems like I once had the unexpected stuff from a more local (Hudson Valley NY) place that had previously sold me the more genuine stuff.
Moldy dirty servers. Those things will mold in a day. Making tea taste sour. The container needs to be washed after they run out of tea, everytime. Next time you get a bad cup smell it. It will have a sour musty smell. Complain to the management.
Well, that was not the answer I expected!
Or wanted.
Yuck.
Interesting that there’s no “middle ground”–it’s either its usual tasty self or it’s this other rather unappetizing stuff. Nothing in the process of going bad/turning sour. Or maybe my palate just isn’t sensitive enough. Maybe that’s just as well.
Thanks (I think)
Now that you mention it, there could be a problem with the ice. They make it in the back and bring buckets of it up to the dispenser. Could be a dirty dispenser, could be a dirty transporting bucket, could be a dirty ice making machine, could be the mop water was none too palatable when they poured it into the ice-maker.
Yes, sweet tea is generally served with a ton and a half of ice. I rememebr one place in New England that put up a sign next to the dispenser: “Sweet tea is supposed to be drunk with at least half a cup of ice.” Guess their clientele had no experience with the idea of sweet tea, poured it in without ice, and then complained. And rightly so. Sweet tea is not the nicest stuff in the world when it isn’t cold.
burpo–Another pleasant possibility. Perhaps I will give up McDonalds. Or fast food. Or restaurants in general.
Or maybe eating and drinking altogether.
better safe than sorry…
I would love to drink sweet tea. Can’t do it. Sodas either. I have trained myself to drink unsweetened tea. It’s basically brown water. I make a 2 quart pitcher nearly everyday. Restaurant tea is a crapshoot. Some places do it well, some not… I have found unsweet tea to be less reliable than sweet. It’s not nearly as popular. That server isn’t emptied and washed as much. Gah!!
ETA, I agree with Burpo, Icemakers in restuarants are not cleaned nearly enough.
A place as busy a MickeyDs probably make Tea several times a day in the summer. That metal server needs cleaning frequently. I’m sure, just like the milkshake machine, it doesn’t happen often enough. IMHO.
I have one fast food place that I will buy iced tea from and that is a MacDonald’s express near my house. I rarely get bad tea from them and it will stay good tasting all day. My friends consider me the standard for “good” tea as in “Would Adhemar approve?” I only drink unsweetened ice tea and have made my own with hot tea and a glass of ice when up north.
When traveling Starbucks has pretty good tea pretty consistently. expensive but better than bad tea.
old tea bags, tea dispensers that sit next to a heat source, unclean dispensers, any tea that isn’t really fresh brewed, and funky tea blends are big time bad in my book.
