Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe {Honey Iced Tea}
Delicious and low carb, this Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe uses honey instead of buckets of sugar. Sweet tea with honey is refreshing and better for you than other sweet tea recipes. Learn how simple it is to make sweet tea without sugar. This healthy iced tea recipe will be your new favorite sip!
A Healthy Sweet Tea recipe is here my friends! It’s healthified. And bonafied. and gasp made by a Yankee?
I have learned that one thing that all southern boys love is sweet tea. And southern boys demand it SWEET. My wonderful brother-in-law Scott, is from Huntington, West Virginia. Scott has been vocal that sweet tea in the Seattle area is neither sweet enough, or “tea-y” enough.
I set out to prove that not only can a crunchy granola Yankee chick make sweet tea, she can make it healthier and still taste great!
I started by consulting the internet. Two cups of sugar per pitcher were pretty standard. Uh, no thanks.
And if you love healthy and refreshing drinks, check out this Cucumber and Mint Water Recipe. Cucumber infused water is the best!
Need a faster way to make a bunch of tea? Check out this post on Easy Instant Pot Iced Tea.
How Can I Sweeten Tea Without Sugar?
It rhymes with sunny, money, funny, and runny.
It’s a bunny. Obviously. Bunnies are the secret ingredient.
Ok, you got me, it’s honey. Traditional sweet tea recipes call for sugar. Lots and lots of sugar.
We prefer to use honey and add it while the water is still hot enough to allow the honey to incorporate but not so hot that it kills the awesome beneficial properties.
You can also use Honey Simple Syrup to flavor each serving so that people can flavor theirs to taste.
Why Do You Add Baking Soda to Iced Tea, Ya Big Freak?
I let the tea bags (:snicker:) steep for a long time to get a strong tea flavor, but that can cause the tea to become bitter. The baking soda neutralizes that and just gives you the perfect tea flavor without a funky aftertaste.
Baking soda is my secret ingredient for cutting the acidity or bitterness out of lots of foods and drinks. Many people add sugar to balance out bitterness, but baking soda gets the job done like a baller (shot caller).
Don’t believe me? See it in action in Whole30 Tomato Soup, Homemade Pizza Sauce, and Instant Pot Orange Chicken.
How Long Will Sweet Tea With Honey Last in the Fridge?
This honey sweetened tea is best consumed within 7-10 days if stored in the fridge.
How to Make Healthy Sweet Tea – Step by Step
- Bring 4 cups of water to a near boil.
- Add tea bag(s) and baking soda, and cover the pan. Remove from heat, and let steep for 15 minutes.
- Remove tea bags, pour into a pitcher, add the honey and stir. Add 4 cups of cold water and place in the fridge. Pro tip: if you would like to serve immediately, add 2 cups of cold water and 2 cups of ice.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes:
- Need to make more or less of the recipe? Click and slide the “servings” number on the recipe card and the ingredients will adjust as needed. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
- Don’t have family style bags? Use 7 small tea bags instead.
- Adding honey to cold iced tea just does not work. Make sure you add it after the 15-minute steeping process.
Variations on this Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe:
- Our preferred way of enjoying this healthy sweet tea is 3/4 tea, and 1/4 lemonade – ‘Palmer style!
- Pro tip: use lemon flavored sparkling water to make it a sparkling Arnold Palmer with less sugar.
- Try experimenting with flavored teas like fruity or tropical teas.
- Add lemon or lime wedges or add fresh fruit.
Do you love healthier drinks that taste amazing? Check out my Mojito Mocktails and Mocktails For Kids and Grown Ups!
I won’t even compare this Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe to “real” sweet tea in terms of sugar consumption. But, let’s just say this version won’t give you the crazy energy rush that would allow you to tie a rope around your waist and tow your car home.
More Healthy Drink Recipes Like This
- Peach Moscow Mule {Moscow Mule Mocktail}
- Cucumber Mint Water
- Homemade Sugar-Free Coffee Creamer
- Blended Iced Coffee
- Creamy Berry Party Drinks
- Chocolate Coconut Coffee Creamer
Healthy Sweet Tea WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS
One serving of Healthy Sweet Tea has 2 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.
Making this recipe or others?
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Delicious and low carb, this Healthy Sweet Tea Recipe uses honey instead of buckets of sugar. Learn how simple it is to make sweet tea without sugar.
- 1 family style black or green tea bag
- 1/3 cup raw honey
- 4 cups water, boiling
- 4 cups water, cold or ice cubes
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
Bring 4 cups of water to a near boil.
Add tea bag(s) and baking soda, and cover the pan. Remove from heat, and let steep for 15 minutes.
Remove tea bags, pour into a pitcher, add the honey and stir. Add 4 cups of cold water and place in the fridge. Pro tip: if you would like to serve immediately, add 2 cups of cold water and 2 cups of ice.
- Place tea, honey, 8 cups of room temperature water, and baking soda in a sun tea jar or large glass pitcher and place in the sun. Stir occasionally if possible to distribute the honey. Length of time to “cook” will depend on how hot the temperature is in the sun.
- Serve over ice if you’d like to serve immediately. Transfer to the refrigerator and cool.
Don’t have family style bags? Use 7 small tea bags instead.
Makes 1/2 gallon or 2 quarts.
Recipes Mentioned in This Post:
I worked at Arby’s a bit over a decade ago in South Carolina and they use 10oz of sugar per gallon (1x 32 oz cup filled up to the top for a 3gal container was normal, then a 21oz cup and a 32oz cup filled for a 5gal container).
I’ve done honey before and while good, I could definitely tell the difference (almost every Mexican restaurant in the south has super sweet tea and I use that as a comparison when I make tea). I just switched to raw blue agave in my coffee 12 months ago and will try that in my tea next time I brew.
Thanks for the baking soda idea! Have not heard or thought of that!
That is sooooo much sugar. I bet it was insanely delicious.
I was in the drive-thru line at Wendy’s and happened to see them mixing up the sweet tea there (in WV) and they were pouring a five pound bag of sugar into a five gallon bucket of tea. No wonder it tastes like syrup to me!
Yikes, no thanks!
I read elsewhere about the baking soda too 🙂 I love sweet tea, especially in the summer! Thanks for posting and reminding how easy it is to make!! I know my kids should love to help with this!
I squeeze a small amount of organic agave syrup in ours. We prefer our tea just a little sweet. I will try the baking powder for sure. I’m guilty of adding a tiny sprinkle of salt to coffee or the grounds to “reduce” the bitter taste.
Why not just steep the tea for a shorter amount of time and avoid the bitterness altogether? 15 minutes is a very long time and I have never steeped it longer than 5. Just curious, I’ve been making sweet tea all my life and came across your blog looking for a less sugary method. Kudos and thanks in advance.
I thought the point of raw honey was not to heat it. Are we killing the benefits? Hope not, cause it sounds delish!
I thought the point of raw honey was not to heat it. Are we killing the benefits? Hope not, cause it sounds delish!
It kills the health benefits if you hate it too rapidly. My advice would be to make the tea without the honey and then once it’s done boiling, let it steep. Once it’s cooled down to a semi drinkable temperature maybe just a little hotter than drinkable, add your honey and then mix with cold water. That way you’re not killing the benefits of the honey, and you’re still getting the same great taste and sweetness etc.
Heat*
Thank you so much for posting this that! Being that I am from the south and a true southern gal I LOVE sweet tea and probably drink a pitcher every other day by myself. I just found your blog this weekend and look forward to trying this and many other of your recipes.
Im just curious do you have any home made hippy lemonade recipes! this Bitch loves Palmers style
This bitch, too. Share, please!
I don’t! We just buy the Santa Cruz organic lemonade when it is on sale in the summer 4/$5.
Baking soda…I never would have thought of that. I just happen to have an over baked batch of sun tea going…it DOES work to cut the bitter. Cool!