How and why of ruined sweet tea

Any number of things could have happened. Tea particles in the container could have made the tea too tannic, i.e.. bitter. Some people are less sensitive to this tannic taste than others. Or the tea could have gotten warm before you bought it, and it might have spoiled. I'm not sure what taste is called 'ruined', as I'm not from the South. In Maryland where my mother is from they call sweet tea 'iced tea'.

This may not answer the question directly, but one thing that does happen to beverages that have no preservatives in them after they have been sweetened is that bacteria and yeasts can grow in them. The cold temps may keep bacteria growing very slowly, but some yeasts can grow reasonably in cold temps. (An example of this is lager style beers that are generally fermented at refrigerator range temperatures). However, to have this happen overnight seems a bit too fast ...

-- Randy (if replying by e-mail, remove SPAMFREE from my address)

While intrepidly exploring rec.food.drink.tea, Tea rolled initiative and posted the following:

While all sweet tea is iced tea, not all iced tea is sweet tea.

Here in Minnesota, you can get iced tea in any restaurant. But if you want sweet tea, you've got to add your own sugar. In many places in the south, you've got a choice when you order.

I think it's unlikely the tea itself went off. If you stored it without an airtight seal, perhaps some odour/scent/gas in the fridge got into it.

Fridges can get very `dirty'.

Cheers,

- Joel

Scene in a US restaurant:

waitress: sweet or unsweet? European: unsweet w: (wants to go) E: oh, and could you drop the ice? w: (disbelief) E: and could you put it in the microwave? w: (aghast) E: and could you add a bit of milk w: (terror) E: full fat, please w: s'cuse me Sir, are you European?

Did you brush your teeth right before drinking it?

--Blair "Methyl-para-crapa-blobba-crudulin."

It gets worse... Once I asked for hot tea and they just brought me iced tea with the ice removed. Once I asked for hot tea and they brewed it with flush water from the coffee maker (had soap in it from where they were flushing the system) Once I asked for hot tea and they brought me some nasty orange spice stuff, and when I asked for plain tea, they brought me iced tea.

It is funny to listen to this thread really. Being in the south I think all tea should be sweet... at least the the type of tea I drink in the summer. Sweet and iced.

I wish that I could explain the taste that I am talking about. It happens to all tea eventually I have just noticed it happening to sweet tea quicker. Maybe that helps. To me it is a sour taste but once again it is hard to put your finger on it.

I will keep looking around for answers.

Thanks for all of the replies.

On 19 May 2004 11:43:29 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@buckman.com (Tony Colston) tripped the light fantastic, then quipped:

I live in the south, and when I'm in a restaurant, I ask for unsweetened iced tea. I like it a little bit sweet, but I don't like drinking syrup. I sweeten it very lightly myself; it's much more refreshing if it's not very sweet.

Not being a fan of sugary juices and/or colas, either, iced tea is pretty much the only cold beverage I drink, no matter the time of year. My other drink of choice is, of course, hot tea.

Tee

You will usually be served tea without sugar in restaurants in Maryland, but at home you'll beserved tea with sugar. Still, I've heard both kinds referred to as iced tea only. Of course Maryland is slightly above the Mason Dixon line, so that may have something to do with it.

Being from the North, tea comes in two types. But it's seasonal. In the summer, 'tea' at my house is sweet and iced, unless specified otherwise. Even if it's herbal.

I think it's a mixture of tannins and that yeasty kind of flavor. You're right- all tea gets like that, and it happens faster when it's sweetened. To my taste buds it's not sour, though. It's bitter.

For this reason I make iced tea in small batches, and sometimes sweeten it with sugar syrup by the glass.

Same here. I think what's called sweet tea is more than tea with sugar- it's almost thick. This doesn't seem to be to the taste of the people I know. I save that sweetness for lemonade. Most lemonade made in the north is too sour for me, or it's not made from lemons.

I drink that all year round, but usully not out. I cave that for home.

Maryland is not slightly above the MD line, check out where the two lines actually are and you will be surprised.

JJ

Tea wrote:

Thank you! I like being proven wrong! It's been years ince I've looked at the actual line- thanks for filling in a gap in my knowledge. :-)

I've encountered something similar, though in my experience it isn't as noticeable when the tea is sweetened since the sugar drowns out some of the unpleasantness. There have been a couple times in restuarants where I've ordered ice tea and it has a sort of metallic, sour flavor. I've usually just blamed it on poor quality or not cleaning out the machine regularly. However, I did a bit of an experiment where I brewed up my own ice tea and just left it out on the counter (actually I had no room in the fridge). It didn't taste noticeably different after the first day or so, but after two days it definitely had a foreign nip to it. I imagine sweetened tea might offer more material for the bacteria to work with and thus go "off" a little quicker. I used to like my tea sweetened but while it tastes good going down, it tends to leave a sort of cloying aftertaste in my mouth. It may just be me, wonder if anyone else has had this problem.