Unsweetened iced tea

[ksoehrlein]

Where in The World can I find good unsweetened iced tea (or unsweet tea, for all you Southerners out there)? I am a newly-reformed Coke addict and am very afraid I will slip back into the habit at WDW. I detest Diet Coke and am trying to cut down on sugar, so I guess my drink-cart options are limited to bottled water.

Needless to say, I will be dying for caffeine by the time we have our sit-down meals. Which WDW restaurants have good unsweet tea or other sugar-free, non-diet drinks?

 

[dzneelvr]

Most of the sit down eateries should be able to offer you sweet or non-sweet tea. The resorts as well.
Stick to ice water or juice at the counter services as you well know, they don't have the selections of the sit downs.
Best of luck in your quest to cut down sugar. It's a good healthy choice.
(but hey, you're on vacation....maybe you could enjoy a nice cherry coke-- with real cherry juice and garnish--- just once.....)

 

[NCRedding]

With only a few exceptions (Trails End and Ohana) you can ONLY get unsweetened tea. My DD loves sweet tea, and only found it at Trails End and Ohana, after asking at every other restaurant we went to (LeCellier, Alfredos, Crystal Palace, Biergarten)

 

[MelanieC]

I didn't know about Ohana, but Trails End and Liberty Tree Tavern are the only places that I know of that serve sweet tea. The rest is unsweetened.

 

[CinderellasMama]

does anyone know if it's brewed tea or fountain stuff? We prefer the brewed tea and won't drink the fountain junk. My DH has given up drinking soft drinks and only drinks tea with Splenda or Sweet and Low. I know he will want his iced tea.

Brenda

 

[Jen D]

It's brewed.

 

[SaraMc]

With only a few exceptions (Trails End and Ohana) you can ONLY get unsweetened tea. My DD loves sweet tea, and only found it at Trails End and Ohana, after asking at every other restaurant we went to (LeCellier, Alfredos, Crystal Palace, Biergarten)

That's odd that Le Cellier didnt have sweet tea. Being from Canada it is just called Ice Tea and well its always got lemon and sugar in it and after a glass of unsweetened tea when your expecting sweetened you learn to ask for sweet tea.

hmmm.. wierdsville.

Sara

 

[DeterminedOne]

I'm a big iced tea fan and the best I've had was at Portobello Yacht club at DD. They brew it fresh and it is delicious!

 

[BCV23]

HoopdeeDoo serves the sweetened variety as well as I recall.

I love unsweetened ice tea and it is very good at almost any full service restaurant. Wolfgang Puck offers an excellent iced tea IMHO.

 

[eeyore0062]

Actually many of the dining venues only offer unsweetened tea. What is hard to find is presweetened tea, for those of us who can't get enough of it!

 

[rascalmom]

Most of the restaurants serve the tea made from the concentrated syrup. It is not brewed. Best (brewed) we found on property is at Brown Derby.

 

[risy]

(or unsweet tea, for all you Southerners out there)?

We southerners don't refer to unsweet tea at all . . . just sweet tea!

 

[jpmom97]

I like Casey's Corner brewed tea, very good!

 

[15MinutesFromWDW]

If you aren't a fan of average, slightly bitter orange pekoe iced tea, try my trick: I carry tea bags with me! I've found that a Twinings tea bag, slipped into a bottle of water and shaken for a few minutes, will make a lovely mock brewed iced tea! (I've tried other tea bags, but they didn't work as well.) The nice part is that you can change flavors as you go through your day.

 

[CinderellasMama]

I like Casey's Corner brewed tea, very good!

What is Casey's Corners?

Brenda

 

[15MinutesFromWDW]

Casey's Corner is a little hot dog shop at the very end of the left side of Main Street in MK. The hot dogs are yummy, and they've got the cutest "bleacher" seating in the back, where you can watch sports-related Disney cartoons. (Unfortunately, it's become something of a main walkway, and not as hidden as it used to be.)

 

[ksoehrlein]

15MinutesFromWDW, I'm thrilled to learn I can get brewed tea at Casey's Corner! Their hot dogs are a family ritual, and we plan to have lunch there on our MK day (we have PS's for CRT breakfast and LTT dinner). Glad to know I won't "have" to wash it down with a Coke.

Now about getting those tea bags into bottled water, how do you manage to do it? Do you have a Masters Degree in oragami, or is it not as difficult as I'm imagining? Have you tried this trick with the Dasani water bottles they sell at the park? Those openings seem kinda small. I'm not a big fan of the Dasani, so I will certainly try your Twinnings tea bag trick. Would Peppermint work well? Thanks for the tip!

DeterminedOne, I am dying to go to Yachtsman, especially after your post. But DH wants to do Cape May Buffet AGAIN for our one non-park dinner. That man is stuck in a rut! Maybe next time...

Thanks, all, for your support. I was so ready to "fall off the wagon" on this trip. And dzneelvr, Cherry Coke is an even BIGGER temptation for me than the regular stuff. I might have one on the last day of our trip to reward myself for being so good.

 

[newscick27]

Thank you first of all for the southern translation I thought it was a sin to drink anything but sweet tea here in Alabama!!!!

Have fun on your trip!!!

 

[15MinutesFromWDW]

Just lightly fold the tea bag around your finger, and it'll slide into the bottle. You probably won't be able to get it back out, but that's not as big of an issue with cold water. (It will only "brew" so strongly, so it doesn't matter how long you leave the bag in.)

 

[ehagerty]

There was a thread going a couple of years ago on this topic (you could probably do a search for it). I think you might find it easy to NOT order the fountain version of Diet Coke at Disney restaurants. Those of us who find the two options (Diet Coke & Ice Tea) both very acceptable, did not care for the fountain recipe (too sweet / syrupy) used for Diet Coke at Disney and most of us opted for the brewed ice tea. The bottles of Diet Coke (carts) were fine (predictable, familiar flavor).

I can't speak for each restaraunt and their ice tea formula - that is, whether they were truly brewed or reconstituted from syrup - but you can always
(a) ask the service staff before ordering and / or
(b) send it back if you don't like it and order something else

Pre-sweetened ice tea is almost always a guarantee of a syrup / reconsituted beverage, such as bottled Nestea. It is convenient, but serious ice tea drinkers prefer a high-quality, brewed tea with custom modifications (if any), such as lemon on the side and / or sweetener from the options at the table.

I can't imagine why a restaurant would even offer pre-fabricated tea - how can you predict how many people want lemon? Sugar vs Sugar-Substitute?

The biggest variation in ice tea quality I have found, after verifying that it is fact fresh brewed, is in the age of the brew and the container itself. Before I order ice tea anywhere, I ask the service staff:
- Is it brewed?
- When was it made?
- Is the container cleaned daily?
Then I reserve the right to replace it with someone else (usually Diet Coke) if it doesn't measure up (never a problem).

That said, the only restaurant where I switched from ice tea to Diet Coke last year was the Nascar Cafe - not even a Disney restaurant.

I had sworn off restaurant Diet Coke (syrup / formula base) after our 2003 vacation, stocking bottles from the grocery for the room. They may have tweeked the formula since then, since several people on the DISBOARDs who are die-hard Diet Coke drinkers were of the same opinion - and we know Disney reads these boards.