It is probably the one drink your dysphagia patients ask you for. Unfortunately, as you know – it is also the most difficult to thicken.
Consequently, I’m going to suggest trying something different. A way for your dysphagia patients to finally enjoy their cup of tea. Ask them to drink it cold.
I know. I can hear you saying, “What!?”. “Are you out of your mind?”. Let me explain.
For a long time, years, we have tried to thicken tea. Our new Slõ Syrup liquid thickener makes an acceptable cup of tea. But it will never be perfect. Nor will anyone else’s thickened tea. There are several reasons why it will never happen.
Tea is a thin drink. Mostly water and a little milk. Coffee on the other hand is thicker. Typically it is made with hot milk which makes the drink feel thicker in the mouth. It’s therefore more acceptable and easier to convince someone to have thickened coffee than thickened tea. Thickened tea, just feels wrong.
People are precious about how their tea is made; which brand is used and its flavour. Unfortunately, the tannins in tea are adversely affected by Xanthan and Starch based thickeners. Thickened tea will therefore taste strong. As if the tea bag has been left in too long.
To thicken a tea – any hot drink – you will need to add 2 – 3 times the volume of thickener you would add to the same volume of a cold drink. This is because the strands of water molecules are moving quickly. Picture spaghetti moving about in a boiling pan. The molecules are moving so quickly the thickener cannot grip and bond to them.
As the water cools, the molecules slow down and the thickener can start to bond. As the water temperature continues to drop, the thickener becomes increasingly effective. A drink will therefore start at the top of an IDDSI Level, but it will become increasing thicker as the water cools.
After 30 – 40 minutes – max, the water is so cool, the thickener works very well. Your patient will typically be left with an over thickened cold cup of tea that has the texture of wall paper paste.
You could avoid this by rushing patients to drink within this time frame. But that will be difficult. Holding a hot drink in the mouth will be just as hard.
All these issues with tea can be overcome with cold tea.
When I suggested this to a Speech and Language Therapist, she laughed (I’m sure respectfully) and suggested no-one wants cold tea.
When I asked if she had ever asked her patients about this she said, “No”.
We have presumed dysphagia patients want a hot cup of tea. They might. But I would argue temperature is not as important as the taste your patients they crave. If it means the difference between having a cup of tea or not, would they compromise?
After all, dysphagia only means drink different, not have different drinks*.
IF and it’s a big IF you can persuade your patient to try it, cold tea is easy to make with our Slõ Syrup to IDDSI 1,2 and 3. It will stay at that IDDSI level. No mouth will ever be scolded and you may have found a way to give them the cup of tea they want.
Let us know what you think and if you would like a sample for your patient to try in their cold tea, just order one with this link: Slõ Syrup Sample.
*Attrib. Slõ
