Is McDonald's Iced Tea Brewed Fresh?

Whether you're in the McDonald's drive-thru for just a sweet tea or pairing it with your Snack Wrap, the Southern staple beverage has become a Golden Arches go-to across the country. Why? Because the fast food giant's sweet tea formula keeps things simple: fresh-brewed black tea, plenty of sugar, and consistency across locations.

McDonald's tea is brewed fresh in-store each day using filtered water and a black tea blend — not pre-bottled or from a concentrate. The tea features a blend of orange pekoe and pekoe-cut black tea, and if you're counting calories, you're either in luck or might want to look the other way. The unsweetened version has zero calories, but if you order it sweet, you're looking at about 29 grams of sugar — just for a small. That first sip can be slightly syrupy and make your teeth chatter (which is the main bone of contention for some negative reviews)

It's so sweet, in fact, that it went viral in 2023 on TikTok when an employee was seen pouring a four-pound bag of granulated sugar into a bucket. That's not actually how they do it, though. McDonald's uses "medium invert sugar," a liquid sweetener added during the brewing process, not a literal sugar dump (which is not the secret to exceptional sweet tea, anyway). Since tea is naturally caffeinated, you might be ordering it as an afternoon pick-me-up, but the effects are probably more sugar rush than caffeine buzz. McDonald's doesn't list caffeine as an ingredient in the tea, unlike its Coca-Cola products, so it's unclear how much of a boost you're actually getting.

Sweet tea was strictly a Southern menu item when McDonald's first added it to regional menus in 2006. By 2008, it had gone nationwide, and thanks to its $1 price tag (on a 32-ounce drink), the tea became one of the chain's most popular drinks. McDonald's sold more than 1.5 billion cups in the first year, with one franchise owner reporting that people ordered four or five at breakfast. Demand was so steady that new store layouts were even designed with tea brewing areas.

Now, nearly two decades later, not much about the tea has changed — and that's part of the magic. It works because of the simplicity of the process. It's just three ingredients with a bold, freshly-brewed tea flavor and an undeniable sweetness. When it comes to the best drive-thru teas, it's ranked among the top — and like McDonald's other superior cold drinks, it's built to stand up to melting ice. You won't find shaken tea infusions or green tea blends, but you will know exactly what you're going to get.