Caffeine-free substitute for sweet tea?

September 15, 2020 3:29 PM

I really love Pure Leaf Sweet Tea but I would like to find a caffeine-free substitute to drink sometimes. I know they make an herbal hibiscus tea that is caffeine free but I've never tried it and am assuming it has quite a different flavor. Is there a good caffeine-free drink that is close to the flavor of sweet tea?
posted by thelasttango to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Are you making it yourself? Give rooibos a try. In my opinion it's the no caffeine tea that gets closest to achieving the experience of what you'd get in black tea, even if the flavor isn't the same.

Hibiscus tea is quite fruity but I've never had the prepared pure leaf brand drink.
posted by phunniemee at 3:37 PM on September 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

Sweet tea is incredibly easy to make -- tea bags in cold water, leave in fridge for a few hours, add in sugar to taste. (There's about 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 18.5 oz bottle of Pure Leaf Sweet Tea - 4g sugar per teaspoon). Decaffeinated plain black teabags (just generic cheap ones like Lipton or store brand or whatever) taste almost exactly the same as caffeinated ones.
posted by Superilla at 3:40 PM on September 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

I prefer low caffeine but drank a lot of Pure Leaf (the regular sweet, not the super sweet) because that's what they sold around my office. I have not been able to find premade decaffeinated sweet tea--it's either full caffeine or it's not black tea. Sweetened green tea is the closest I've found--I like Honest Tea Honey Green Tea.

(I prefer to make my own tea, and recommend it in general. But if you have to buy, that's my recommendation.)
posted by jessica fletcher did it at 3:49 PM on September 15, 2020

Rooibos is what I'd suggest as well. It has a slight sweetness. It's pretty nice, i.e. not one of those 'acquired taste' things.
posted by pipeski at 4:07 PM on September 15, 2020

Came in to suggest rooibos as well- you may see it called red tea. I don't like flowery teas and hibiscus is too flowery for me.
posted by soelo at 5:38 PM on September 15, 2020

Decaf black tea has some caffeine FYI, around 5mg per bag. Most people won't notice or care about that small amount but it's enough to bother some sensitive people. If you are not highly sensitive then making your own with decaf black tea is probably the best bet.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:52 PM on September 15, 2020

In tea would be my recommendation for alternatives for DIY rather than big name brands. Whether you contact them for advice or actually purchase the products would be useful in the advice they could potentially set up.
posted by brent at 7:15 PM on September 15, 2020

We keep a jug of home-made decaf iced tea in the fridge pretty much year-round. We use Luzianne teabags. My wife doesn't like sweet tea, but I do, so I just make a batch of simple syrup on occasion and add it to my glass.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:32 AM on September 16, 2020 [1 favorite]