McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small): calories and sugar by portion, age and sex

Nutrition information: McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small)

Nutrition figures are McDonald’s USA published data, per item as sold and before any optional sauces or extras. Boone converts them to the portion and age comparisons on this page.

McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small) is over the US per-meal added sugar limit

McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small) contains 29g of added sugar, 2.9 times the 10g per-meal limit in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The same guidelines recommend no added sugar at all for children aged 10 and under.

FDA Daily Values (2,000-calorie diet)

Where the sugar comes from: McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small)

Effectively all 29g counts as added sugar, or about 7.2 teaspoons against the 10g per-meal limit.

Added sugars come from

• medium invert sugar in the medium invert sugar

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030: no more than 10g of added sugar per meal from age 11 and none for children aged 10 and under. FDA Daily Value: 50g a day. Sources are read from the published ingredient list for each component.

Processing and additives: McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small)

McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small) is assembled from 2 separately manufactured components, combined and served at the point of sale. Reading the ingredient list closely, it contains corn syrups and invert sugar. These are not there to add nutritional value. They make industrial production and distribution possible.

Boone classifies McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small) as NOVA group 4, ultra-processed, based on the additives named above. NOVA groups foods by how far they are from their whole-food form, not by how nutritious they are. A group 4 food is not automatically unhealthy, and a group 1 food is not automatically healthy. Read from the published ingredient list, September 2026.

Ingredient count by order: McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small)

The 1 manufactured ingredients

medium invert sugar.

The 2 raw ingredients

orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea, water.

What those ingredients are, by type

Boone counts every distinct named ingredient on McDonald’s published component lists, including sub-ingredients, and removes duplicates, so salt appearing in four components counts once. Additive class names are dropped and the named substance kept, so “leavening (baking soda)” counts baking soda once. Ice and water added at the counter are not counted. Raw covers whole foods and basic kitchen staples such as flour, sugar, salt and oil. Manufactured covers substances that only exist as an output of industrial processing. Every figure here is a minimum. The build uses a Sweet ’n Sour sauce.

Ingredients by component: McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small)

Ingredients taken from the McDonald’s USA product pages, retrieved September 2026, with obvious spelling errors corrected. Recipes change - always check in restaurant before ordering if you have an allergy.

Allergen information: McDonald's US Sweet Tea (Small)

Contains caffeine, but McDonald’s USA does not publish a figure. Contains = declared by McDonald’s USA. May contain = McDonald’s states the allergen may be present. McDonald’s prepares food in shared kitchens, so no item can be guaranteed allergen free. UK rules also require barley, oats, mustard, celery and sulphites to be declared; these are shown where the ingredient list names them. Retrieved September 2026.