So, last May on a prematurely-summery day, I’m at the McDonald’s drive-up. From their “Dollar Menu” I order two double-cheeseburgers , two apple pies (two for $1), and their recently-introduced, large sweet tea. It’s funny how reduced pricing can alter your perception of how much and what kind of food is good for you. But this is not about that.
I had recently seen an ad featuring the sweet tea. The unctuous voice—behind an image of crystalline ice swimming in the sweet, golden nectar—assured me that, unlike other places, McDonald’s tea is brewed fresh daily.
After paying my $4 plus tax at the “first window,” I drove ahead to await my order. It was delayed because the girl at that window was blocked by two guys hoisting and emptying the contents of a ten-gallon paint drum—I swear, that’s what it looked like—into a beverage cooler/dispenser. You know what’s coming, don’t you; once they moved aside, I saw that it was the sweet tea.
Later, after medicating my illusions with a dose of high-calorie, high-fat, low-cost food, I decided that the tea was actually pretty good, despite being shipped and handled like industrial solvent. Seduced by a TV commercial: I must have fallen asleep, remote in hand, drool on chin, and dreamt of a grand-motherly woman preparing fresh tea, then letting it steep under a charming tea cozy, also made by her own hands. Brewed fresh daily, indeed! Yeah, they mix up a batch each and every day at the factory.
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