McDonald’s sweet tea is one of the most popular drinks on the menu. The refreshing, sweet, iced tea has been a staple at McDonald’s restaurants across the United States for decades. But what exactly goes into McDonald’s famous sweet tea?
In this article, we’ll explore the ingredients, recipe, and process that McDonald’s uses to brew their iconic sweet tea in restaurants every day. We’ll take a look at where the tea comes from, how much sugar is added, and other key facts about the famous McDonald’s drink. By the end, you’ll understand exactly what goes into a cup of McDonald’s sweet tea!
The Origin and History of McDonald’s Sweet Tea
Sweet tea has long been a signature drink of the southern United States. The origins of sweet tea date back centuries to the arrival of tea in North America with English colonists in the 1700s. As the colonists settled in hot southern regions like Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, they found that drinking hot tea didn’t make sense in the sweltering climate. Instead, they started pouring their black tea over ice to chill it. The Southerners also discovered that adding sugar or molasses helped sweeten the chilled tea and made it more palatable.
This sweet, chilled tea became a refreshing staple beverage of the American South for generations. By the 1950s and 1960s, sweet tea was being served at restaurants throughout the southern states. Fast food chains like McDonald’s started offering sweet tea on their menus to appeal to southern customers when they expanded across the region.
McDonald’s began formally offering sweet tea on its national menu in 2008. After seeing the popularity of sweet tea in southern states for years, McDonald’s decided to introduce the drink system-wide to appeal to tea drinkers nationwide. The launch of sweet tea nationwide was part of McDonald’s efforts to continue expanding its beverage offerings beyond just soda.
McDonald’s Sweet Tea Ingredients
McDonald’s sweet tea contains just a few simple ingredients:
Water
The base of McDonald’s sweet tea is plain, filtered water. The exact specifications may vary from restaurant to restaurant, but McDonald’s uses municipal water supplies filtered through a standard commercial filtration system. This filtered water ensures there are no unpleasant tastes or odors and provides a consistent base for brewing a tasty cup of tea.
Tea Bags
The tea used in McDonald’s sweet tea comes from tea bags provided by the company’s suppliers. McDonald’s has indicated they use a custom blend of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea bags in their sweet tea. The pekoe cut delivers a smooth, balanced tea flavor.
Pure Cane Sugar
Sweet tea wouldn’t be sweet without sugar! McDonald’s uses pure cane sugar to sweeten their brewed tea. They likely use plain granulated white cane sugar, though some locations may use simple syrup instead. Either way, it’s 100% cane sugar adding both sweetness and that signature tea flavor.
Water and High Fructose Corn Syrup
Some McDonald’s locations use a liquid sugar concentrate solution instead of granulated pure cane sugar. This concentrate contains water and high fructose corn syrup. Locations that go this route add the sugar component by pouring the concentrate into already brewed tea. But many restaurants stick with simple granulated cane sugar.
Citric Acid
To give their sweet tea a balanced, rounded flavor, McDonald’s also adds a very small amount of citric acid. This natural preservative and flavor enhancer brightens the tea’s flavor and helps prevent any strange tastes.
So in summary, the primary McDonald’s sweet tea ingredients are black tea bags, filtered water, cane sugar, and citric acid. No fancy herbs, fruits, spices, or sweeteners added—just simple tea ingredients!
How McDonald’s Brews Sweet Tea
Now let’s take a look at how McDonald’s actually turns those simple ingredients into sweet tea served fresh daily at every restaurant. Here is an overview of the standard process McDonald’s uses:
Brewing the Tea
Each McDonald’s location has special industrial-sized tea brewers to make gallons of tea at a time. Workers add the tea bags to the heated, filtered water in the brewer based on specified ratios. The exact brewing time and temperature may vary, but generally the tea steeps for a few minutes just below boiling. This strong tea concentrate helps create consistent flavoring.
Sweetening the Tea
Once the plain tea concentrate is brewed, sweetener is added. Brewed tea concentrates are held in large containers, where workers add in the required amount of granulated cane sugar or liquid sugar concentrate. The amount of sugar varies based on desired sweetness levels.
Diluting the Tea
The super-concentrated sugary tea is too strong to serve on its own. So McDonald’s workers dilute the tea before serving it. The sugary tea concentrate gets mixed with additional filtered water in exact proportions to reach the optimum tea flavor and sweetness for customers.
Chilling the Tea
The freshly diluted, sweetened tea then gets chilled right away. McDonald’s pours the tea into dispensing machines that keep the tea chilled at all times. Getting the tea cold is critical for McDonald’s signature sweet tea flavor.
Dispensing the Tea
From the chilled dispensers, McDonald’s employees can fill up customer cups with freshly made sweet tea. The constant brewing process means sweet tea is always available on demand for customers!
So in short, McDonald’s brews strong tea, sweetens it, dilutes it, chills it, and dispenses it freshly made throughout the day. This process allows them to churn out lots of sweet tea quickly while keeping flavor and sweetness consistent.
Standard McDonald’s Sweet Tea Sizes
McDonald’s offers sweet tea in all standard drink sizes. Here are the typical sweet tea sizes and volumes available:
| Sweet Tea Size | Ounces |
|---|---|
| Small | 16 oz |
| Medium | 21 oz |
| Large | 30 oz |
Sizes and cup volumes can vary a bit by location. For example, small may be 12oz at some restaurants. But in general, small sweet teas are around 16 ounces, medium 21 ounces, and large 30 ounces.
How Much Sugar is in McDonald’s Sweet Tea?
One question many customers have is just how much sugar goes into McDonald’s sweet tea. With its intense sweetness, you know there must be a lot of sugar added, but exactly how much?
The amount of sugar in McDonald’s sweet tea actually depends on the size, and can vary slightly by location. But here are some general sugar amount guidelines:
| Sweet Tea Size | Total Sugars (Grams) |
|---|---|
| Small | 38g |
| Medium | 49g |
| Large | 69g |
As you can see, even a small sweet tea contains nearly 40 grams or 10 teaspoons of sugar. The large exceeds 2/3 cup of sugar!
This makes McDonald’s sweet tea one of the highest sugar chain restaurant drinks around. The sweet tea contains even more sugar than a similar-sized McDonald’s soda!
McDonald’s Sweet Tea vs. Unsweet Tea
Some customers may opt for McDonald’s freshly brewed unsweet tea to avoid the high sugar content of the sweet version. So what’s the difference between unsweet vs. sweet tea at McDonald’s?
The two teas start from the same brewed concentration of plain black tea. The difference comes in the added sugar.
McDonald’s Unsweet Tea:
– No sugar added
– Tea concentrate diluted with water
– Chilled and dispensed
– Clean, medium-strength tea flavor
McDonald’s Sweet Tea:
– Lots of sugar added
– Tea concentrate diluted with water
– Chilled and dispensed
– Very sweet, strong tea flavor
So the only distinction in the two teas is the presence or absence of added cane sugar. McDonald’s lets customers choose between the refreshing natural tea flavor or super-sweet tea.
Nutrition Info for McDonald’s Sweet Tea
Let’s take a detailed look at the full nutrition information in a medium McDonald’s sweet tea:
| Nutrition Facts | Medium 21oz |
|---|---|
| Calories | 180 |
| Total Fat 0g | 0% |
| Sodium 15mg | 1% |
| Total Carbs 49g | 16% |
| – Sugars 49g | |
| Protein 0g |
As you can see, the calories and sugar content are quite high, with 49g sugar in a medium sweet tea. But being straight tea with no fat or protein, McDonald’s sweet tea provides hydration and not much else nutritionally.
Is McDonald’s Sweet Tea Healthy?
With all that sugar, is McDonald’s sweet tea a healthy drink choice? Unfortunately, the high amount of added sugar makes McDonald’s sweet tea a very unhealthy beverage option:
– A medium sweet tea has 49g of sugar – over 2 days’ worth the recommended max daily sugar intake!
– All of the sweetness comes from added sugar rather than natural sources. Added sugary drinks are linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and more.
– The sugar in sweet tea causes blood sugar and insulin spikes, which can lead to energy crashes.
– There are zero nutrients in McDonald’s sweet tea beyond some hydration. No vitamins, minerals, protein, or fiber.
– Tea brewed from tea bags lacks the antioxidant content of fresh brewed tea.
Healthier Alternatives
Customers would be far better off choosing unsweet tea, water, or diet soda when visiting McDonald’s. Or opting for a small sweet tea instead of medium or large.
For the healthiest sipping, it’s best to avoid sweetened drinks altogether and stick with plain teas, black coffee, water, seltzer, lowfat milk, or other unsweetened options. Getting used to less sugar takes time, but your body will thank you!
Reviews of McDonald’s Sweet Tea
McDonald’s sweet tea has developed quite a loyal following over the years. Here’s what some customers and reviewers have to say about the iconic McDonald’s drink:
“It’s the perfect combo of sweetness and refreshing iced tea flavor. I wish they’d sell bottles of the stuff!”
“I know it’s not the healthiest choice but I’m addicted to McDonald’s sweet tea. It’s my guilty pleasure drink!”
“I don’t love strong tea flavor, but the sweetness balances it out. It really hits the spot with the McDonald’s fries and burgers.”
“I like that it’s made fresh and not sitting out for hours getting funky like some places. Consistent McDonald’s flavor.”
“Way too sweet for me. But I appreciate that they offer solid unsweet tea as well.”
Overall, fans rave about the taste of McDonald’s sweet tea but acknowledge it’s a sugary indulgence. Customers appreciate the constant availability and consistency of the fresh-brewed drink.
Cost of McDonald’s Sweet Tea
Like all McDonald’s drinks, sweet tea is very affordably priced. Here are the typical costs for a McDonald’s sweet tea:
| Sweet Tea Size | Price |
|---|---|
| Small | $1.00 |
| Medium | $1.29 |
| Large | $1.49 |
Of course prices vary a bit by location. But sweet tea generally costs just $1 to $1.50 for a full fountain drink-sized portion. At that low price point, you can see why customers love indulging in McDonald’s sweet tea!
Where to Buy McDonald’s Sweet Tea
You can only purchase McDonald’s sweet tea by visiting an actual McDonald’s restaurant. They unfortunately do not sell or distribute their signature tea to grocery stores or other retailers.
Your only option for enjoying true McDonald’s sweet tea is to order it at any McDonald’s location – just stop by the counter or drivethru to grab a cup! Some other ways you may be able to purchase:
– McDonald’s Mobile App Ordering:
Order ahead on the app for quick pickup or drivethru retrieval
– McDelivery:
Get McDonald’s sweet tea delivered if available in your area through Uber Eats, DoorDash or other delivery service
– Self-Serve Drink Station:
Fill your own cup with sweet tea at McDonald’s locations with self-serve drink dispensers
So visit your local McDonald’s restaurant whenever that sweet tea craving strikes!
Copycat McDonald’s Sweet Tea Recipe
While you can’t buy packaged McDonald’s sweet tea at the store, you can try making a homemade version yourself with this copycat recipe!
Ingredients:
– 3 family-sized tea bags or 5 regular tea bags
– 1/2 gallon water
– 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
– 1/4 tsp citric acid powder
Instructions:
1. Boil water and steep tea bags for 5 minutes. Remove tea bags.
2. While tea is hot, stir in sugar until fully dissolved.
3. Add citric acid and stir until combined.
4. Allow tea to cool then refrigerate until chilled.
5. Serve over ice. Adjust sugar to taste. Enjoy!
This easy homemade sweet tea lets you enjoy the classic McDonald’s flavor at home. Add more or less sugar to fit your taste preferences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some common questions about McDonald’s world-famous sweet tea:
Is McDonald’s sweet tea already pre-sweetened?
No, McDonald’s adds sugar to freshly brewed unsweetened tea. They do not use pre-sweetened liquid tea.
Does McDonald’s use high fructose corn syrup in their sweet tea?
Some locations may use HFCS as part of a liquid sugar mixture. But many restaurants stick with regular granulated cane sugar.
Is McDonald’s sweet tea brewed from scratch daily?
Yes, McDonald’s freshly brews their tea and adds sugar each day. The tea you order is made that day.
Does McDonald’s sweet tea stay fresh if left overnight in the fridge?
It’s best to drink McDonald’s sweet tea right away for optimal flavor. Leftover tea may lose taste and freshness after a day.
What tea brand does McDonald’s use?
McDonald’s states they use a custom blend of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea. The specific supplier varies by region.
Conclusion
With its delicious signature flavor, affordability, and availability, McDonald’s sweet tea has become a staple beverage for millions of American customers. While not the healthiest menu choice due to its very high sugar content, McDonald’s special sweetened black tea is a tasty indulgence when you want a sweet, comforting drink. Sip your way through a super-sized cup of this classic fast food beverage!