The Best Gold Peak Iced Tea Flavor Is Leagues Beyond The Rest

If you crave the thirst-quenching power of chilled tea over ice, we get it: You need some soon, and it's gotta be good. Fresh-brewed iced tea is ideal, but busy lives often get in the way. Fortunately, bottled versions fill the thirst gap, sometimes in impressive ways. That's especially true when brands let the tea itself shine through, largely undeterred by unnecessary additives. For this reason, many folks swear by the Gold Peak brand. So Tasting Table dived down a tea-inspired rabbit hole to explore nine Gold Peak iced tea flavors, ranking them from worst to best.

Here's what we found: Of the nine flavors tasted and evaluated, one clearly floated to the top: the Gold Peak black tea with Simply peach juice. It's part of a Gold Peak line created in collaboration with the Simply brand of not-from-concentrate refrigerated juice drinks. Both brands share the same owner, the Coca-Cola Company. The Simply line of Gold Peak teas incorporate real fruit into the mix, including peaches for our chosen cold-tea king.

According to our taste tester, "There was just too much to love about this beverage for it to rank anywhere other than in first place." Reasons include the tantalizing light peachy aroma at first top-pop, followed by a noticeable peach flavor that didn't overpower the natural taste of the tea. However, the reviewer did note the overall sweetness factor, saying that it's likely not right for anyone wanting unsweetened tea with just a hint of peaches.

With so many bottled iced-tea brands vying for attention (and market share), it begs the question: What makes Gold Peak teas different, particularly the Simply line? For starters, like all Gold Peak iced teas, the Simply peach juice version features genuine brewed tea leaves and filtered water for a clean, natural taste. It may not carry the nostalgia of granny's home-brewed teas before bottled versions were a thing — but many iced-tea devotees feel it comes close.

Ingredients for the Gold Peak black tea with peach juice are minimal. The list of contents includes brewed tea (filtered water and black tea leaves), cane sugar, peach juice, lemon juice (for tartness) and natural flavors. It's also Non-GMO Project verified, vegan, dairy-free, has low sodium content, and is sweetened with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, which many consumers prefer these days.

No preservatives are listed, and this product is available only in the chilled aisles of grocery stores. It comes in bottles holding 52 fluid ounces for sharing, rather than individual sizes. The number three spot in our Gold Peak iced tea ranking went to another Simply drink, the Gold Peak black tea with Simply Lemonade, which was also a top pick in our Tasting Table ranking of the seven best store-bought lemonade brands.