How Much Caffeine Is in Sweet Tea? Chains and Bottles

How Much Caffeine Is in Sweet Tea? Chains and Bottles

Sweet tea has caffeine because it is brewed from black tea leaves. Sugar adds zero caffeine. A large Chick-fil-A iced tea has about 100 mg, a 16.9 fl oz bottle of Gold Peak Sweet Tea has 44 mg, and a 12 oz serving of Milo's Famous Sweet Tea has 37 to 44 mg. McDonald's and Dunkin do not publish caffeine for their sweet teas.

Caffeine in Sweet Tea by Brand and Size

Source: each seller's own nutrition page, FAQ or label, checked Oct 2026. USDA for brewed black tea. mg per fl oz computed where the seller publishes the serving size.

Does Sweet Tea Have More Caffeine Than Unsweet Tea?

No: sugar adds no caffeine, and sellers that list both flavors show virtually identical numbers. Milo's FAQ puts Famous Sweet Tea at 37 to 44 mg per 12 oz and Famous Unsweet Tea at 35 to 42 mg per 12 oz, ranges that overlap almost entirely.

Chick-fil-A's caffeine FAQ lists one "Iced Tea" figure per size (Small 45, Medium 72, Large 100 mg) without splitting sweetened and unsweetened, so it gives no separate number for either.

Why Is Bottled Sweet Tea Lower Than Home-Brewed?

Bottled sweet tea delivers less caffeine per ounce than a pot of black tea steeped at home. Gold Peak Sweet Tea runs 2.6 mg per fl oz, and Milo's Famous Sweet Tea 3.1 to 3.7. Compare that to USDA's figure for brewed black tea: 5.9 mg per fl oz.

The FDA's "Spilling the Beans" page puts black tea at 71 mg per 12 fl oz. How your own pitcher compares depends on bags per quart and steep time; the USDA average for an 8 oz cup is about 47 mg. The bottlers do not say how strong they brew, so the label is the only number to go on.

Sweet Tea vs Coffee

A 12 oz cup of regular brewed coffee has 113 to 247 mg of caffeine according to the FDA. In the same 12 oz, Gold Peak Slightly Sweet Tea has 33 mg and Milo's Famous Sweet Tea has 37 to 44 mg. Coffee wins by a wide margin at every brew strength.

A large Chick-fil-A iced tea at about 100 mg comes close to the low end of that coffee range (113 mg), and only because the cup is much larger. For how black tea stacks up against green, white and herbal options, see tea for energy.

McDonald's and Dunkin Sweet Tea Caffeine

Neither chain publishes a caffeine figure for its sweet tea. McDonald's US product pages describe the tea as a blend of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea and list calories by size (Small: 170 calories), but no caffeine. Dunkin's Nutrition Guide similarly omits a caffeine column for its iced teas.

Both teas are brewed from black tea, so they contain caffeine. Without published numbers from the brands themselves, any specific mg figure would be an estimate. If you track intake closely, this is a gap worth noting. Our Dunkin caffeine content breakdown covers the rest of the menu, with its iced tea rows marked as estimates.

How Much Sweet Tea Reaches 400 mg?

The FDA cites 400 mg a day as an amount not generally linked to negative effects for most healthy adults. That 400 mg includes caffeine from all sources: coffee, tea, sodas, supplements.

• 4 large Chick-fil-A iced teas (4 x 100 mg = 400 mg)
• About 9 bottles of Gold Peak Sweet Tea at 16.9 fl oz each (400 / 44 = 9.1)
• About 9 to 11 servings of Milo's at 12 oz (400 / 44 = 9.1 to 400 / 37 = 10.8)

Sweet tea is dilute enough that most people will not approach 400 mg from tea alone, but refills add up, and so does anything else with caffeine during the day.

A note on sugar: Gold Peak Sweet Tea lists 48 g total sugars per 16.9 fl oz bottle on Coca-Cola's product page. Chick-fil-A's large sweetened iced tea lists 44 g of carbohydrate (sugar is not broken out separately). If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, talk to your health care provider about caffeine limits.

Related from Roon

• Tea for energy: which teas have the most caffeine
• Does Twisted Tea have caffeine?
• How much caffeine is too much?

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Chick-fil-A's Sunjoy have caffeine?

Chick-fil-A does not list a caffeine figure for Sunjoy. The menu item is half sweet tea and half diet lemonade, so it contains tea and therefore some caffeine; the exact amount is not listed.

Is there a caffeine-free sweet tea?

True sweet tea is brewed from black tea leaves, which always contain caffeine. Herbal teas like chamomile and peppermint have none, but they are not black tea. Milo's states that its lemonades and fruit punch contain no caffeine, if you want something from the same cooler without it.

How much caffeine is in Starbucks iced black tea?

A Grande (16 fl oz) has 25 mg, per Starbucks. The default recipe is unsweetened at 0 calories; sweetener is added only if you ask for it. A Tall (12 fl oz) lists 20 mg, a Venti (24 fl oz) 40 mg and a Trenta (30 fl oz) 55 mg.

Does Gold Peak Zero Sugar Sweet Tea have caffeine?

Coca-Cola's product page for Gold Peak Zero Sugar Sweet Tea does not list a caffeine figure. It is brewed from black tea, so it contains caffeine, but the brand has not published the amount on its own site.

When the Tea Glass Runs Dry

Sweet tea puts somewhere between 33 and 100 mg of caffeine in your hand depending on the brand and the size. If you are reaching for a second or third refill less for the taste and more because the lift faded, the issue is duration, not dose.

Roon is a zero-nicotine, zero-sugar oral pouch (it contains sucralose) with 80 mg of caffeine, roughly a medium Chick-fil-A iced tea, plus 60 mg L-theanine, 25 mg methylliberine (Dynamine), and 5 mg theacrine (TeaCrine). Methylliberine slows caffeine clearance: a randomized crossover PK study (n=12) found that co-administration with caffeine extended caffeine's half-life from 7.2 to 15 hours with no increase in peak concentration. That study dosed 100 mg methylliberine with 150 mg caffeine, about 4x the methylliberine and 1.9x the caffeine in one Roon pouch, so the direction of the effect applies, not the exact magnitude. A 15-hour half-life describes the blood, not how long you notice it; what people feel from a pouch lasts closer to 6 to 8 hours.

One pouch, placed under the lip, kicks in within 5 to 10 minutes and carries through an afternoon without the sugar load or the refills. Cap your day at 4 pouches and 400 mg of caffeine from everything combined, and leave at least 8 hours between your last pouch and bedtime. Roon runs from $9.16 per tin, or as little as $0.61 per pouch, on a 12-tin subscription.

Sources

• Chick-fil-A. How much caffeine do the coffee and tea beverages from Chick-fil-A have?
• Coca-Cola. Gold Peak Tea products and nutrition
• Milo's Tea Company. FAQ (caffeine by product)
• Starbucks. Iced Black Tea
• USDA FoodData Central. Beverages, tea, black, brewed, prepared with tap water, FDC 173227
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine Is Too Much?
• Journal of Exercise and Nutrition. Caffeine and Methylliberine: A Human Pharmacokinetic Interaction Study

Written by Roon Team