Pure Leaf Is Launching Its First-Ever Zero Sugar Sweet Tea

We love sweet tea on a sweltering summer day when it's the ideal refreshing beverage to cool us off and satisfy our sweet tooth at the same time. What we don't love so much? All the added sugar in a recipe for sweet tea. It seems inevitable that you'll typically get a whopping dose of this ingredient in a glass since the saccharine flavor it produces is literally in the name of the drink. But starting on March 27, 2024, iced tea brand Pure Leaf is launching a version without sugar, and even more impossibly, without any calories, per a press release sent to Tasting Table.

The drink is called Pure Leaf Zero Sugar Sweet Tea, and the brand promises that it will have all the same delicious flavor as the classic type. "We know this is an iced tea option consumers are looking for today, and we took the time needed to perfect our recipe," Julie Raheja-Perera, General Manager of North America's Pepsi Lipton Partnership, said in the release. 

The beverage boasts "freshly picked, high-quality black tea leaves," which bring a woody aroma to balance out the sugar-free sweetness. Bottles are also free from artificial colors, flavors, concentrates, or preservatives. This new product will be an innovative step for Pure Leaf, whose current bottles of Sweet Tea include 42 grams of added sugar, with its Extra Sweet Tea featuring 64 grams per bottle.

In addition to the new flavor, Pure Leaf is launching a campaign with actresses Emily Alyn Lind and Celeste O'Connor, stars of the 2024 movie "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire." The heart of the campaign is to bust the myth that sweet tea can't be tasty sans sugar — and considering that Pure Leaf seemingly has yet to release the key ingredient that provides the saccharine flavor (the nutritional information on the brand's website still shows its regular Sweet Tea's ingredients as of March 26), it's still very much playing into the mystery, here. 

We might be able to glean clues, however, from Pure Leaf's Lower Sugar iced teas, which debuted in 2022. One 18.5 fluid ounce bottle of the Lower Sugar tea contains 20 calories and 5 grams of sugar, and lists purified stevia leaf extract among its ingredients, which is on its way to becoming a top sugar substitute. It remains to be seen, however, if the brand will continue using the latter ingredient in its Zero Sugar products.

If you want to get in on the fun, you can enter Pure Leaf's giveaway by sharing an unbelievable experience you've had via the campaign's site. Winners will receive a prize pack containing the new tea and some fun holographic stickers. And until you get your hands on one of these beverages, try making your own at home with our favorite flavorful addition to sweeten iced tea without plain sugar.