The Sugar-Free Sweet Tea Brand You Can Leave On The Shelf

As the name implies, sweet tea should be sweet! And while traditional sweet tea recipes pour in a cup or two of sugar per pitcher, some tea drinkers try to avoid sugar. The bottled tea industry has thankfully come out with sugar-free sweet tea to satisfy that demographic. To that effect, we ranked 6 zero-sugar sweet tea brands and found that Milo's is the one that you can leave on the shelf.

We based our ranking off of the flavor profile, the presence or absence of a chemical aftertaste, sizing options, and the overall value of each sugar-free sweet tea. While Milo's is affordable and encompasses various sizes from a single-serving bottle to a gallon jug, the overall flavor landed it in last place.

Ironically, we chose Milos as the number one store-bought sweet tea when the sugar is included, in part because it has a simple three-ingredient makeup. Milo's zero-calorie sweet tea contains the same three-ingredient formula, so we had high hopes. Unfortunately, the proportion adjustment Milo's makes for its zero-calorie designation is what deplete its flavor. The sucralose swapped in for real sugar manages to sweeten the tea without that unsavory aftertaste present in a lot of artificially sweetened drinks. However, the sweetness is all we tasted, as there was a complete absence of tea flavor. The disproportionate ratio of water to tea resulted in a beverage that tasted more like sugar water than real tea.

According to reviews from Walmart and Milo's own drinkmilos.com, customers were as disappointed by Milo's zero-calorie sweet tea as we were. One customer described it as, "Super cheap sugar water that they pass off as tea." Another customer said that zero wasn't just the amount of calories in Milo's zero-calorie drink but also the amount of flavor. While some customers bemoaned an artificial aftertaste to the sweetness, others said they could barely perceive any sweetness because of how watered down the tea was. While there are ways to fix a tea that's too bitter, it's hard to fix a watered-down tea.

So Milo's watered-down, zero-calorie tea is certainly not worth bringing home. Instead, you can opt for one of our higher ranking zero-sugar tea brands like Gold Peak and Great Value. If you find yourself with watered down, store-bought tea, you can try adding a squeeze of lemon or lime juice or a pinch of salt to try and bring out the elusive taste of the tea leaves. You'd still be better off throwing the watery store-bought tea away and brewing your own cup using our 12 useful tips.