A new drink at Panera Bread is the Acai Iced Tea. The Acai berry continues to be a very popular new ‘super fruit’ added to healthy foods and drinks, and while Acai Tea is not new, it is at Panera.
You can make this at home for about .45 cents a serving!
This is the freshly brewed Acai Tea purchased at the restaurant. As you can see from the photo it is not very strong. The tea is brewed directly into the self-serve Acai Tea dispenser from what looks like a standard industrial size coffee machine. Since it brews hot, it requires some cool down, and some Ice. This photo was taken with minimal ice added. There wasn’t much of a flavor with the tea, and it tasted like a light herbal green tea, with color.
Nutritional Information (from Panera)
Ingredients – China green tea, Hibiscus, Natural flavors and Acai bits
For a ‘regular’ size drink, 20 ounces
Calories: 0
Caffeine: 83mg
The price was decent, at under $2, ideal for a product containing Acai Berry as most foods and drinks with this can be way overpriced, with some of the products just containing the Acai ‘flavor’. The tea brewed at Panera seems to be a true Acai drink.
A second photo, a refill, contains a large amount of ice, which ‘fogged’ the cup.
Much better when the drink is ice cold.
Since Acai isn’t a sweet fruit taste like strawberry or raspberry the strong tea taste, and not so strong fruit taste makes this a recommended drink. Don’t be put off by what seems like a weak flavor, as a herbal tea type of drink this is the norm (it isn’t a fruit juice, it is an iced tea!).
The Great Tea from Panera
You can make this at home too – ZERO CALORIES!
Panera Tea Flavors – See the list of drinks you can buy