Why won’t fast food restaurants serve iced tea anymore? The only ones that know how to brew tea right is Wendy’s and Sonic. Other places just serve that instant crap or the kind that’s presweetened raspberry (bleah!) The instant Nestea tastes like a diet coke that’s sat out in the sun for sixty days! I think it’s just laziness on the part of restaurant managers to serve this kind of crap. Personally I like plain ole brewed unsweet tea, it’s much more refreshing than a soda much of the time.
I am thoroughly unimpressed with any drink that comes from fast food restaurants.
The employees need to start filling up the drink fountains with soda syrup more, so customers won’t get stuck with incredibly diluted drinks…
Somehow I don’t think it’s the employees who are calibrating the syrup to carbonated water ratio.
I think part of it might be promotional. The coca-cola people came by to do something with our soda-gun and offered us vanilla coke on tap for free for a while. We have vanilla, and we have coke though, so we can combine them to make vanilla coke when it’s ordered. I’d imagine that the train of thought of coke was the same a couple years ago during the iced-tea marketting blitz. My mom also doesnt make iced-tea any more, she has nestea or lipton’s.
Also:
- Its less labor intensive in a lot of different ways
- More consistant taste (even if its “worse”), nobody complains that the iced-tea is off if theyve been drinking the same iced-tea their whole life.
I’ve worked fast food before, and one of our jobs was to refill the syrup in the soda fountains whenever drinks were getting too watery. It only takes about 2 minutes…not a huge chore.
Oh well, this is why I usually get water when in these places anyway. 
Oh. Well okay. My fast food working experiences were different. No matter.
Just a tip: Chick-fil-a has real, home-brewed iced tea and it is wonderful!
I used to work there, and even still when I go I have to get iced tea instead of my usual Dr. Pepper. Wonderful stuff, really.
Whose home do they brew it at?
Yours, of course! But you have to keep an eye on them while they’re in your house or they’ll pee in the sink.
FWIW
A few years ago a favorite fast food joint of mine started up with the nasty machine tea. as I was somewhat aqainted with the Manager I asked. Besides the spiel on space/ time saving I also was told that fresh brewed tea that sits at lukewarm tempatures aquires a stale taste caused by bacteria.
I’ve tasted that before, and I can relate. I can even smell it in a glass that has sat too long.
Needless to say I ask how old the tea is and if it has sat in the comtainer too long, I pass on it. 6 hours is about my limit.
Arby’s still has fresh brewed, and they keep it in the dining area where it is away from the heat of the kitchen.
XJET canm I get an “AWWWW YEA” for the most holy Doc?
I was going to join this thread to tell you that Wendy’s makes good iced tea but I see you already know that.
I think that the reason they do it is consistancy. It is hard to make consistant batches of regular iced tea. Employees may let it brew too long, use water that is too cold so the sugar does disolve, etc. Instant tea is consistant even if it isn’t good. A major principal of fast food is consistancy.
Really, good iced tea is the main selling point for any restaurant for me. I seldom go places that serve instant tea. Life is too short.
Burger King brews their iced tea, and it still tastes like crap when it’s fresh. Yuck. Don’t even get me started on McDonald’s tea. It’s the absolute worst of the worst. It’s like lightly flavored water. Blech.
Jeez. Restaurants serving cheap, mass-produced, unpalatable food are also offering cheap, mass-produced, unpalatable tea. I’m stymied.
I know I’m always a nasty crank, but this is just too much. If you don’t want to eat and drink crap, stop going to fast food restaurants, you fucking idiot!
Do any fast food places serve sweet tea?
Everytime I’ve asked (albeit, not that often), they tell me I can just add sugar. As if!
Actually, I’d be disappointed if the ice tea at a fast food joint was good. I go to places like that specifically for the bad food. Good tea would ruin the ambience.
Where are you from super_head? In the south every fast food place serves sweet tea. I honestly can’t think of one that doesn’t. Often it is the nasty fake stuff, but still sweetened.
As long as we’re ranting about drinks in fast-food places, why can’t they invent a better way of carrying the drinks when you order to go? Not everybody wants to eat in their cars; some people like to drive home and eat there. Those molded papier-mache drink trays are hardly adequate for the job when you have to hold the food in your other hand, and have to park any distance from your front door.
So they should come up with a sort of temporary drink carrier, like a six-pack, or – even easier-- they could sell you canned soda!
Well, here in Atlanta, most of them offer both sweet and unsweet tea. However, since I can’t stand sweet tea, I can’t vouch for its quality. Usually, I’ll just get a Diet Coke.
Well, I lived in Alabama where they had the nasty fake stuff - thinking back, yeah, maybe there some sweet tea and I didn’t drink it because it was the nasty fake stuff.
Out here in Colorado though, I can’t even get the good real stuff when dining out.