The Best & Worst Bottles Teas in America in 2021—Ranked!
We love southern sweet tea as much as the next person, but if we look at the most popular tea products on the market, how do they really measure up for our health?
Tea has a long-standing reputation, especially in eastern medicine. These earthy brews have many health benefits that go back hundreds of years! Tea is chock full of antioxidants, cancer-fighting properties, and immune-boosting compounds!
The trouble with tea products, particularly in the Western parts of the world, is that we load our teas with sweeteners. In doing so, we significantly degrade their nutritional value. Common sweeteners can vary from more natural to highly artificial.
The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that women should consume no more than 25 grams of added sugar in a day and 38 grams for men. Most popular tea brands blow these numbers out of the water in just one serving!
When classifying the worst and best teas on the grocery store shelves, we specifically must hone in on the sugar content. The best products will be brewed simply and without many additives—just as tea was made to be consumed!
We know what you're thinking; you can just buy the diet version! Well, yes. Of course, the diet tea options certainly have the competitive advantage of being lower calorie but they are sweetened artificially. While artificial sweeteners are generally recognized as safe for the public, they still are associated with many self-reported wonky symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, and increased sugar cravings!
So, the best choice for you might be a little more personal. Ranked from the absolute worst to best, here are the bottled and canned teas on shelves you should buy—or skip—next time you're at the store. Then, be sure to check out our list of 112 Most Popular Sodas Ranked by How Toxic They Are.
Pure Leaf Extra Sweet Tea
This fan-favorite takes the title for the worst tea we could find on the market. With an emphasis on the extra, this product lives up to its name with 240 calories and 64 grams of sugar.
Related: One Major Side Effect of Eating Too Much Added Sugar, Says New Study
Joe Tea Sweet Tea
A close second, this product is also 250 calories per bottle with nearly 60 grams of sugar! Talk about a sugar crash, you're only going to get empty calories here.
Here are the Side Effects of Eating Too Much Sugar, Say Dietitians.
Bare Nature Vitamin Iced Tea – Peach
Wowzers, this product is proof that marketing can make a brand appear deceivingly healthy. With 225 calories per bottle, this choice is not much better than the rest before it. One redeeming quality is that it's crafted with non-GMO cane sugar.
Arizona Green Tea with Honey
Yikes! Green tea with honey sounds so healthy; but when we flipped the can around to look at the nutrition label, we discovered it contains 210 calories per can and 52 sugars—the majority of which come from high-fructose corn syrup. This product is not much better than your average soda.
Gold Peak Sweet Tea
This bottle of tea is found in nearly all grocers and convenience store options. It's a solid middle-of-the-road choice with 190 calories per bottle and 48 grams of sugar—still too high in our book.
Here's One Major Side Effect of Drinking Sweet Tea, Says Dietitian.
Snapple Mango
Snapple has nailed their flavor profiles, but their nutrition facts leave much to be desired. This product contains 190 calories and 45 grams of sugar per bottle—more than the recommended amount per day by the AHA!
Snapple Peach
This American favorite is still a little on the sweet side, but it's an improvement from the worst. With 160 calories per bottle and 40 grams of sugar, they crafted a tea that is moderately sweet without compromising on flavor!
Peace Tea Caddy Shack
This brand is certainly trying to win some favors with its sugar-reducing tactics. They use apple juice, cane sugar, and sucralose to sweeten their product. This combo is still not cutting it as their tea clocks in at 160 calories and 38 sugars per can!
Gold Peak Green Tea
With 140 calories and 35 grams of sugar, this green tea is still ultra-sweet. It's not the worst, but it's certainly not the best.
Arnold Palmer Lite
For your half-lemonade-half-tea fix with a fraction of the sugar content of the traditional option, this can does provide. But with a high amount of sugar (31 grams), it's best to split this can between two.
Lipton Brisk Lemon Tea
These classic cans of tea clock in at 110 calories per bottle, but are primarily made of high-fructose corn syrup—certainly not my first choice for a sugar option!
Yerba Mate
This South American staple has made its way to the U.S. market. Luckily, it measures up pretty well when compared to traditional brands. With only 100 calories per can, this choice focuses on high-quality ingredients with organic tea and organic cane sugar.
Lipton Half Tea/Half Lemonade
While this option might look like an improvement due to having only 100 calories for the whole bottle, the majority of these calories are coming from high-fructose corn syrup—yikes!
Related: 23 Surprising Foods That Contain High Fructose Corn Syrup
Pure Leaf Organic Green Tea w/ Apple
This organic choice is a turning point on the list with double-digit calories! Only 80 calories per bottle here, but this option still packs a sweet punch with 20 grams of sugar.
Lipton Iced Tea Herbal Orange Blossom
With 18 sugars per bottle and added sweetness from stevia, this product is extra sweet without the extra calories.
Honest Tea Organic Peach Oolong
This fun option is lightly sweetened with peach puree and organic agave syrup. With 16 grams of sugar per bottle, it is definitely an upgrade from conventional peach tea!
Tazo Hibiscus Passion Tea
Caffeine-free and organic, this trendy option is a step up from the rest of the pack. With 70 calories and 16 grams of organic sugar, this floral option really outshines the others so far.
Pure Leaf Lightly Sweet
This product offers the lowest calories yet with only 60 calories per bottle. Made simply with black tea and sugar, this option is lightly sweet and hard to beat.
Diet Snapple Peach
This bottled tea has a conflict of interest. On one hand, it offers a great, low-calorie option for your sweet tea fix. On the other hand, it is brewed with aspartame which is not our first choice for an added sweetener.
Lipton Diet Green Tea
This option looks too good to be true as a zero-calorie choice! The antioxidants in green tea will give you a boost here; but again, we are not huge fans of aspartame as the sweetener of choice.
Bai Super Tea
This product is giving black tea a run for its money. Sweetened with erythritol and stevia, this choice is way ahead of the tea industry with only 10 calories per bottle!
Tiesta Tea Lean Green Machine
Sweetened with agave syrup and brewed with hints of lemon, orange, and lemongrass, this product is a close tie for first place! The only thing holding it back is those 5 grams of sugar from the syrup—but that's a measly amount when you consider more traditional tea products on the market.
Pure Leaf Unsweetened Green Tea
Picking a favorite is hard, and this runner-up doesn't make it any easier. This product offers the antioxidant benefits of green tea without the sugar rush! We love this refreshing, no-calorie option for a simple afternoon pick-me-up.
Tejava Unsweetened Mint Iced Tea
Zero calories, zero sugars—it's easy to understand why this is the winner! You won't even miss the sugar in this product, because it is perfectly balanced with mint. You'll get your thirst quenched without the empty calories or added sugars.
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