I Tried 9 Grocery Store Sweet Tea Brands, and There Was a Very Clear Winner

Sweet tea—or as they call it in the South, “tea”—is an American summertime institution. It combines all the key elements of a hot-weather beverage: It’s cold (preferably iced), sweet, light, and refreshing. It’s even got caffeine, so it packs a bit of a punch. And since it's not a soda and is technically derived from a plant, it has the faint aura of being healthy (just don’t look too closely at the nutrition facts on the back of the bottle).

When sweet tea was first popularized in the southern United States in the 1800s, it was a sign of affluence, with ice and sugar being rare and precious commodities. But the advent of refrigeration and the spread of sweetener gradually made sweet tea a drink of the people, readily available nationwide in every restaurant, curbside food stand, quick stop, and grocery store. Many grocery chains now contract to make their own branded sweet teas which have become so popular among the cart-pushing populace that most stores only sell it by the gallon. 

The Best Grocery Store Sweet Teas, Ranked

But not all of these sugary drink-aisle elixirs are created equal (in fact, some don’t even use sugar!). We bought nine sweet teas, both name brand and store brand, to bring home to our family cookout and sip in the sun. Here’s our rankings, including the one we’d grab again and again:

9th Place: Schnuck’s Sweet Tea

It’s not a crime to use high-fructose corn syrup. Heaven knows it sweetens some of our favorite treats—and many other food staples. But the corn syrup in this brew overwhelms any taste of the tea and makes for a thicker, less refreshing experience. It also adds a few extra calories compared with the others.

8th Place: Arizona Southern Style Sweet Tea

Arizona is a juggernaut when it comes to tea, but it built its rep on green tea, with ginseng and honey. Here, the term “Southern Style” should’ve been a red flag, as they also use corn syrup to oversweeten and gum up the drink. Arizona should stick to the green stuff.  

7th Place: Hy-Vee Sweetened Iced Tea

The clinical name of this one sort of says it all. It’s not very sweet, nor does it have the earthy aftertaste of a refreshing iced tea. There might be a “Helpful Smile in Every Aisle” of this Iowa-based Midwest chain, but there’s not a lot of love in its sweetened tea concoction.

6th Place: Gold Peak Sweet Tea

A solid offering from this Coca-Cola Company label, this one is smooth with a nice balance between tea and cane-sugar sweetness. That’s why we wonder where the 190(!) calories (compared to 120 or so in their competitors) are hiding. We’d like a little more flavor if we’re packing on that kind of poundage.

5th Place: Benner Tea Co. Sweet Tea (Aldi)

Benner is the private-label brand of Aldi, the Germany-based multinational supermarket chain. There’s a strong black tea flavor, but the bottle, which comes in convenient six-packs of 16-ouncers, also contains a touch of citric acid, to which we attribute a pleasant lemony finish.

4th Place: Great Value Sweet Iced Tea (Walmart)

The rich and brisk tea flavor also comes to the forefront of this Walmart sweet tea, but it’s balanced nicely with a crisp, natural-sugar sweetness making for a real thirst-quenching treat. And at less than $3 for a gallon of the stuff, you really get the tang for your buck. Great value, indeed.

3rd Place: Pure Leaf Sweet Tea

This entry from the Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership earns its vaunted pedigree—sweet and satisfying as soda, rich tea flavor like the best iced tea. And at only 100 calories per serving, it’s about as guilt-free as good sweet tea can get.

2nd Place: Kroger Sweet Iced Tea

A definite standout. Again, balance is key, leading with the crispness of the black tea, followed closely by a real-sugar sweetness that wasn’t saccharine, and ending with a citrusy kiss that was at once satisfying and yet made you thirst for one more heavenly taste. And bonus points for being available in half-gallons, for those days when you don’t want to gulp down an entire jug.

1st Place: Milo’s Famous Sweet Tea

Of all the teas we steeped ourselves in, this one took the prize. No surprise—It comes from a Southern, family-owned, Alabama-based company. It boasts just three ingredients: water, tea, and pure cane sugar, perfectly balanced to provide a quintessential sweet tea experience. Simplicity never tasted so sweet.