One Of The Least Popular McDonald's Items Is Probably One You Never Order

Some McDonald's food items are so popular that they've become a core part of fast food culture. But, the chain's menu also includes some duds, and the item that's reportedly ordered the least of all is hot tea. If you didn't even know that was on the menu, you're not the only one — even Stephen Patula, whose family owns several McDonald's franchises, said in a now-deleted TikTok that he didn't know that McDonalds offered hot tea until a customer asked for it. 

As reported by Fox News, Patula's sentiment is one that's been echoed by several other McDonald's employees. In the comments of his video, one admitted that the employees at their store didn't actually know how to make the tea, and that they struggled to get it done the first time an order came through. In the end, they had to get help from the general manager.

If you're curious, the hot tea at McDonald's is made with water, orange pekoe, and pekoe cut black tea. Despite the orange in the name, the tea is not citrus-flavored; orange pekoe is actually part of a tea grading system relating to Indian teas, indicating size and quality. The tea blend is curated exclusively for McDonald's stores.

It's not just the hot tea — Tasting Table's taste tester crowned the hot coffee as ​​the actual worst item on McDonald's menu. In a viral thread on Reddit, it was also reported that the milkshakes are another drink that are avoided by the employees like the plague due to the sketchy cleaning protocol of the machine. According to the responses, the poor cleaning practices apply to the teas — and anything else that comes out of the McCafe machine.

Even though iced tea is a significantly more popular order at McDonald's, the tea isn't actually prepped to-order. According to speculation on Reddit, it gets brewed in large batches at the beginning of a shift and sometimes remains standing uncovered and unstirred for hours on end until somebody finally remembers to make a new batch. This is further complicated by the fact that coffee and tea are allegedly brewed in the same machine, which can create cross-contamination and impact the flavor.  

When it comes to keeping up with the hygiene, McDonald's cleaning protocols may exist, but if speculation is to be believed, they don't always get enforced. When it comes to certain McDonald's beverages, like the iced tea and milkshakes, it could depend on the individual McDonald's location and the way that particular store is run. The hot tea, on the other hand, is the least popular for one good reason: Nobody, including the employees, know about it.