Ranking 20 Snapple Flavors From Worst To Best

Did you know that there are more than 1,600 Snapple real facts? Did you also know that some bottles of Snapple don't actually have a real fact waiting for you as you uncap your bottle? That's something about Snapple that we discovered while taste-testing 20 of their most popular flavors (one of the 20 sported a sadly blank bottle cap).

While many Snapple enthusiasts might prioritize reading their real fact before taking their first sip, we'd like to think that it's the refreshing, fruity taste of Snapple's various flavors that has upheld the brand's popularity since its humble beginnings in 1972. Snapple is known for its efforts to use only fresh, all-natural ingredients, and it now carries over 30 flavors, from teas to lemonades to fruit juices. Although we ranked these 20 flavors from worst to best, they were all pretty good, including the flavors made with zero sugar. Read further to find out where your favorite flavor ranks, or discover a new flavor you haven't tried yet.

As adults, our go-to grape juice is cabernet sauvignon. We won't claim to drink every major type of red wine strictly for its heart-health benefits, but extra antioxidants are always a plus. We wondered whether child-friendly grape-based juices also offer health benefits, and found that, depending upon the type of grapes used, they should (via Mayo Clinic). Mayo Clinic also reports that even grape extract or grape powders can possibly still contain the fruit's nourishing benefits, so Snapple's Grapeade, made with grape juice concentrate, could offer up something better than just its taste!

And we kind of hope that it does. Overall, neither the scent nor taste of Snapple's Grapeade juice was appealing. The scent wasn't very distinctly grape, but it was reminiscent of an artificial grape jelly. Upon realizing that this beverage is made with the juice concentrates of apple, pear, and grape, we can see why its scent was kind of off. As for the taste, it was super sweet in an unpleasant way. This drink was one of the most artificial-tasting ones out of all of Snapple's fruit juices.

Snapple carries a variety of fruit-flavored lemonades and teas. A well-known combination of the two is the half n' half lemonade iced tea. The flawlessly balanced combination of earthy iced tea and tart lemonade is often associated with famed golfer, Arnold Palmer, who allegedly thought up the concoction himself.

Having enjoyed AriZona's Arnold Palmer half iced tea & half lemonade in the past, we were excited to try Snapple's take on the combination. We were also skeptical of how similar it might taste to the lemon tea. While Snapple's lemon tea smells discernibly lemony, the half n' half lemonade iced tea does not. Its scent actually reminded us of Lipton's powdered iced tea mix. Taste-wise, this reminded us more of a juice than a tea. It didn't boast that classic lemonade tartness, and it was way, way too sweet.

To compare, Snapple's half n' half lemonade iced tea contains a whopping 51 grams of sugar per 16-ounce bottle, while a 16.9-ounce bottle of AriZona's half-and-half has 44 grams. As for its similarity to Snapple's lemon tea, the two don't compare. While Snapple's lemon tea is sweet, it's also refreshing and lemony, with 36 grams of sugar swirled into each 16-ounce bottle.

Is there a difference between sweet tea and iced tea? Sure, sweet tea is just regular old "tea" for many of those living in Southern states, but sweet tea and iced tea are technically made differently. As per Food Network, sweet tea is distinguished by the fact that it is sweetened while it's being brewed, not after it's already cooled. When sugar is added during the brewing process itself, it blends more directly with the tea, which gives sweet tea its distinctly sugary taste.

Snapple's honey sweet tea certainly boasts a flavor that is wholly different than any of their other iced teas. When sipping the drink at room temperature, the overwhelming scent and taste of honey was at the forefront of our palettes. When poured over ice, the taste of this beverage immediately reminded us of McDonald's controversially sweet sweet iced tea. Snapple's honey sweet tea pretty much tastes like liquefied honey, and you can base your personal Snapple ranking off of that information. For us, the beverage was a little too sweet, but if we were specifically in the mood for a sweet tea, this would hit the spot.

If you're an avid fruit juice drinker or candy fanatic, you may be well aware of the distinct taste of watermelon-flavored products. You likely know that watermelon as a fruit and watermelon-flavored foods provide two very different tastes. This isn't to say that watermelon-flavored beverages or foods taste bad, but it's noticeably harder for companies to emulate the taste of watermelon than it is for other fruits, like strawberry or banana. According to the Los Angeles Times, this is due to the unique breakdown of the compounds that give watermelon its distinct fragrance.

As such, Snapple's watermelon lemonade gives off that notoriously artificial watermelon scent, one that we likened to that of a watermelon Jolly Rancher candy. As for the taste, the lemonade aspect captures our tastebuds' attention first, foremost, and deliciously. We like that this lemonade is wonderfully tart, but not overly sweet, and the hint of watermelon is light and refreshingly, well, watery, but in the juicy way that makes a ripe watermelon so appealing.

After enjoying more than a decade of success selling natural fruit juices, the higher-ups at Snapple began producing their now-famous teas, due to pressures from the ever-changing beverage market (via New York Times). Sticking to their all-natural promise, Snapple makes their teas with real tea leaves, according to its site, although the first flavor wasn't perfected until years of work were put into the recipe. Founder Arnold Greenberg told the New York Times, "We made the first ready-to-drink iced tea that didn't taste like battery acid," and consumers have loved the stuff ever since.

Although there are Snapple tea flavors that we'd never known of, like the strictly sugar-free Trop-a-Rocka Tea, there are staples like the lemon tea and raspberry tea that have been around all our lives. As such, the taste of Snapple's raspberry tea is one we're used to, but once we started to compare this flavor with Snapple's other beverages, we found that it wasn't anything stellar. The Snapple raspberry tea tastes exactly like you'd imagine a raspberry tea to taste: light, slightly tart, and appropriately sweet. While it wasn't necessarily bad, we can readily agree that Snapple's other tea flavors are more appealing.

We are probably not alone in the fact that when we discovered a banana-flavored Snapple, we were highly skeptical. It's no secret that banana tends to carry an overpowering and distinct flavor when it is included in juices or smoothies. Most Snapple juice flavors have a fruit base comprised of berries, like strawberry or blackberry. Since berries and citrus fruits have a higher water content than bananas do, according to My Food Data, they tend to taste more refreshing, which is what people usually expect when they grab a Snapple.

Because of that, our expectations for a banana-flavored fruit juice were low. However, we were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the Snapple Go Bananas juice. Surprisingly, it didn't really smell like banana, and we couldn't exactly identify the smell aside from it being kind of tangy. As for the taste, a room-temperature sip lent a tart banana flavor, which might sound weird, but tasted pretty good. After refrigerating the beverage and tasting it again, we felt that the banana flavor was certainly there, but not in a smack-you-in-the-face kind of way. It's a sweet, smooth drink that doesn't warrant the adjective "fruity," but it is still a satisfying and refreshing treat.

We tried 20 of Snapple's most popular flavors, which meant seeking more coveted flavors at a few different stores. Despite the array of shops we visited and flavors we tried, we somehow only came across one Snapple bottle that looked different than the rest. Most people will probably recognize that this bottle looks a lot more like the original Snapple drinks that used to be manufactured in glass bottles. A very with-the-times kind of company, Snapple has continually evolved as a brand to meet the needs of the ever-changing world in which we live, and one major change was the evolution of its bottle materials. According to the Snapple website, its newly plastic bottles are far more sustainable than its glass predecessors were.

We'll give Snapple bonus points for its environmentally-conscious choices, but this particular bottle is the only one of 20 that we tried that didn't sport a quirky Snapple real fact inside its bottle cap. Despite being slightly disappointed by this, we were certainly satisfied by the rest of the bottle's contents. The kiwi strawberry juice had an unsurprisingly sweet strawberry scent. It tasted sweet and tart and like strawberry, and while there was clearly another underlying flavor, it didn't scream of kiwi. In fact, there was almost a hint of zingy lime in the beverage. Either way, this would be a hard flavor to dislike.

After tasting all three flavors of Snapple's new Elements line, we have a clear and easy winner. We think that Snapple's claim that their Elements drinks are "impossibly light and refreshing" is a bit of a reach, but the air flavor fits the bill most closely. The Elements air flavor is labeled prickly pear & peach white tea, and that's exactly what it tastes like. While most of Snapple's tea products are made with black and/or green tea leaves, this is the only flavor thus far that is made with white tea. According to Simple Loose Leaf Tea Company, white tea has many similarities to both green and black tea, like the fact that they all contain a hearty amount of antioxidants and caffeine. As such, Elements air is the only one of the three Elements flavors that contains caffeine — approximately 18 mg per 15.9-ounce bottle, according to Snapple. 

Despite their similarities, white tea tends to have a lighter, less bitter earthy taste than green or black teas. This sentiment is proven in the crisp, very lightly sweet taste of the Elements air beverage. With a lovely aroma of peach with hints of apricot, this refreshing tea tastes of both peach and pear without feeling too much like a heavier fruit juice.

Despite newer tensions surrounding the word "diet," diet drink industry continues to boom, says TODAY. In fact, Snapple recently took heed of society's growing disdain for diet culture and rebranded all of their sugar-free beverages as "zero sugar," rather than "diet." The change is only in the name, as Snapple cites that their zero sugar beverages are made exactly the same as diet Snapple flavors were.

Having already tried a few of Snapple's zero sugar flavors, we felt that we knew what to expect from the zero sugar half n' half lemonade iced tea — a distinctly artificial smell and taste that defines the beverage more than its flavor does. And yes, this particular beverage did give off a distinctly artificial scent. However, we were pleasantly surprised by how good this zero sugar flavor tasted. It was the least diet-tasting of the sugar-free options, and thanks to its delicate hint of lemon, we think it's even better than its full-sugar counterpart, the half n' half lemonade iced tea. Poured over ice, this Snapple flavor earned a 10 out of 10 rating from us.

When life gives you lemons, create a lemon-flavored sweetened tea beverage, bottle it, and watch your company's sales increase by 60%, says Funding Universe. In the late 1980s, that's exactly what Snapple's founders did, having spent years perfecting their bottled iced tea recipe after strictly selling fruit juices and sodas (via The New York Times).

When you want a refreshing beverage, there's nothing better than iced tea. And, when you want an iced tea, there's nothing better than a simple hint of sweetness and a squeeze of fresh lemon. The iced tea experts at Snapple clearly knew this, and lemon tea, a now-staple flavor in their lineup, certainly doesn't miss the mark.

With a nice, citrusy scent, there is, of course, a distinct lemon flavor in this beverage. However, unlike the fruit aspect of the raspberry tea or peach tea, the lemon's flavor doesn't overpower the tea — it complements it. Likewise, the tea itself smooths out the tartness of the lemon, making this Snapple flavor much more enjoyable than the sweeter, tangier half n' half lemonade iced tea. Snapple lemon tea is refreshing, smooth, and timeless, which is why it's our number one Snapple flavor.