What drink could be simpler or healthier than tea – except maybe water? Tea can keep you mentally alert and is known for its crisp, refreshing taste. The antioxidants in tea may boost your immune system, improve digestion, and help manage other health conditions.
But all ready-to-drink teas are not created equal. Added sugar – even in the form of fruit juice or honey – can turn simple bottled tea into a high-sugar, high-calorie beverage equal to those sugary sodas many tea drinkers wish to avoid.
What’s considered a healthy level of sugar? The American Heart Association recommends no more than 36 grams of added sugars for men daily and 25 grams for women per day.
What’s in YOUR Tea?
On closer inspection, tea comparisons can be tricky. For one thing, bottle sizes vary. So if you want to compare sugar content of two different brands, look at the line, “Serving size” on the nutrition panel first. If they are the same, great. Then look at which has higher grams of sugar per serving. If the serving sizes are different, that’s where a bit of easy math comes in. About how much bigger is the serving size compared to the other? For example, if the serving size is 18 ounces for one brand, and 8 ounces for the other, then you know 18 ounces is about double that of 8 ounces. So then take the grams of sugar from the 8 ounces brand and double it. Is it more or less than the grams of sugar of the 18 ounces brand?
A tea variation that has become popular over the years is adding fruit juices to tea, a clever way to make tea taste sweet and fruity. Some teas contain the juice of lemons, peaches, apples, berries, and so on. The idea is probably, in part, to help cut down on cane sugar, the most common sugar added to bottled teas. Nevertheless, check the nutrition panel because sugar is sugar, no matter the source.
We’re going to limit our comparisons of black teas to those sweetened with natural cane sugar, fruit juices, herbs, and spices. To help you make more informed tea selections, we compared the amount of sugar in five of the leading brands of bottled teas, using the classic black tea variety as our comparison model. Let’s get on with the brand comparisons!
Pure Leaf
Pure Leaf’s product description says their sweet teas are sweetened with “real sugar.” To accommodate those with a “sweet tooth” of varying levels, Pure Leaf offers a lineup of these black tea based teas, such as: Sweet, Extra Sweet, and Zero Sugar Sweet.
The sugar content in Pure Leaf Sweet tea is 42 grams per 18.5-oz. bottle. Their Extra Sweet variety is a whopping 64 grams packed into an 18.5-oz bottle. The Zero Sugar Sweet is 0 grams per 18.5-oz (it uses a zero-calorie artificial sweetener).
Gold Peak
Gold Peak’s Sweet Black tea sugar content is 48 grams per 18.5-oz bottle. With a hefty dose of sugar, it’s not surprising that Gold Peak also offers a Slightly Sweet version with 24 grams of sugar and an Unsweetened Black, both 18.5-oz.
Just Ice Tea
In their “Just Sweet Enough” product line up, they have a variety of tea types and flavors with sugar content ranging from 9 – 19 grams per 16-oz bottle. However, their "Just Black" tea has 0 grams sugar per 16-oz bottle.
Snapple
Snapple’s Straight Up sounds like it's just tea and water, but beware. This line up comes in three sweetness levels. Straight Up Sweet contains black tea and 45 grams of sugar while the sister teas, “Sorta Sweet” has 22 grams of sugar and “Unsweetened” with no sugar per 18.5-oz bottle.
Tejava
Our comparisons wouldn’t be complete without mentioning our very own Tejava black teas. No matter what package size or flavor of Tejava you pick up, there is no sugar, no sweeteners, and no calories. And no preservatives like many other brands.
It's no surprise our Original Black Tea has won at the Global Tea Championship™ nine times. We proudly small-batch brew tea leaves sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and add nothing else—no preservatives or sugar. All you taste is authentic, true-to-the-tea taste. In fact, our flavored teas taste so good – people are always asking “there’s no sugar?”. No sugar, no calories, just refreshingly great flavor, unsweetened and boldly smooth. Available in 1L, 12 oz and 16.9 oz bottles.
You be the judge. But, we’re not shy in saying we have the best black tea around, proudly sourced from Java, the Indonesian island that inspired our brand name – tea from Java.