Taco Bell Does The Freddy Wrong
I've become an iced tea addict over the last year or so. It used to be I'd just drink it when we were driving to San Francisco. Then last summer (or was it the summer before that?) I started drinking it pretty much every day.
I like to use the large plastic cups with cover and straw that the various fast food places serve beverages in. I'd use them over and over- washing them every now and then- until they got so grungy I'd throw them in the recycle bin and go get another cup from some fast food place. My favorite is the Shell mini- market in Cloverdale where they'll sell you as many of their "Double Gulp" cups as you'd like for only 25 cents each. I'd also stop at either Burger King or Taco Bell in Eureka, buy a large iced tea, and use the cup over and over.
Yesterday I decided the large cup I'd bought from Burger King a month or so ago needed to be replaced. I was going by City Garbage anyway, and figured it wouldn't be too far out of the way to stop by the Taco Bell on Broadway and buy a large iced tea. I was to be greatly disappointed.
I went in, asked for a large iced tea, and the girl tells me they only offer sweetened iced tea now. Unsweetened is no longer an option. WHAT??? I only like it unsweetened. How rude!
So I tell the gal I really just wanted one of the large cups and offered to pay 25 cents just for a large cup, lid and straw. She seemed a bit unsure of how to handle that so simply offered to sell me a glass of water that only cost 11 cents, with cup. Except the cup seemed to be the medium size rather than the large one I wanted. What the heck. I'm easy. I gave her 25 cents for my medium glass of water and told her to keep the change.
The cup was important, but not that big a deal. How dare they stop offering unsweetened iced tea? We'd nearly always stop at Taco Bell before leaving town to head south for my obligatory large iced tea. I guess no more. They better not be doing that at Burger King. And it will be an even worse nightmare if the Cloverdale mini- mart stops offering plain iced tea.
The story of my life: I like something, but nobody else does so it's discontinued.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 6:31 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Join the Taco Bell Sweet Tea community and give 'em hell Fred.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Taco-Bell-Sweet-Tea/231154107905
And buy some Nestea Unsweetened Ice Team. Same stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Nestea-UnSweetened-Quart-Iced-Tea/dp/B0019MJQLC
And I wonder just WHAT is used for the sweetener? Aspartame, Neotame, High Fructose corn syrup? Or perhaps "sugar" from genetically modified sugar beets? No Than You! Just give me plain old Pure Cane Sugar.
Seriously, a blog column on this topic?
How about try another fast food joint?
Do your readers really want to spend their time, reading about this?
Come on, you can do so much better than this..
Please be more responsible with your blog columns.
"Do your readers really want to spend their time, reading about this?"
If you don't like it, it won't bother me a bit if you don't come back.
No, as a matter of fact, we DO love this type of topic. It's part of the greater slice of life. Good thing you don't read Samoa Softball's take on food joints.
Fred:
I don't think it's sweetened per se, they blend the iced tea with lemonade (which probably has a sweetener in it.) Not sure I understand the marketing strategy but, all in all, it's not bad.
10:58 wrote, "No, as a matter of fact, we DO love this type of topic."
Thanks. I'll never understand those who think bloggers have some sort of obligation to provide reading that they find relevant. I've seen similar complaints towards other bloggers.
I've seen even more blogs where I'm not interested in the content. I don't complain about it. If I don't find it interesting enough, I don't bother visiting the blog.
7:51 wrote, "I don't think it's sweetened per se, they blend the iced tea with lemonade (which probably has a sweetener in it."
Doesn't matter to me. I just want unsweetened and unflavored iced tea. I don't see why they don't just make it so customers can flavor their own iced however they want.
I believe Taco Bell offers the lemon flavored, which isn't probably sweetened in the literal sense. Burger King got a new machine some time ago that offered all kinds of flavors, including unsweetened. I thought that was kinda neat. Just bush the button for whatever you wanted. For some reason they moved that machine behind the counter last time I'd visited.
But most places seem to offer limited choices. I wrote here years ago when we first started going to UCSF how hard it was to find just plain iced tea. I'd stopped at that Patriot(?) station in Piercy and all they had was those 12 ounce bottles of Snapple. They might have had regular Snapple iced tea but it was too pricey. I was to find out later the One Log House across the road offers (or did?) regular iced tea.
The concessions at the Food Court at UCSF only offer Strawberry flavor iced tea, although I found the Subway on the floor below offers regular unsweetened. I wonder if they're going to stop offering it?
Same thing in McKinleyville! No unsweetened ice tea! What is Taco Bell thinking! Damn the corporate big wigs that made this decision!
Sweet tea is the only way to drink iced tea! Just as a real Philly cheese steak doesnt have fancy cheese.
Thanks for the Taco Bell tip, Fred. You can have unsweetened tea at Subway.
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