Green tea content. There’s only 11 per cent green tea extract so there’s not a huge amount of actual tea. The flip side is that there’s minimal caffeine. According to Lipton, caffeine levels in green ice tea are a low 63-68mg/L which translates to 15-17 per 250ml glass. This is less than half of what’s you get from a cup of hot green tea at 30-50mg.
Flavonoids. Less tea means less tea flavonoids, those helpful polyphenol “antioxidants”, which have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and keep your circulation flowing freely without any clotting. Hot tea, both green and black, always make it into the Top 100 foods for polyphenols. Read my overview of polyphenols in foods.
Bear in mind that hot tea delivers a lot more flavonoids in general - around 150mg per cup. Ice tea gives you between 17 to 60 mg per 250mL glass, which is quite a wide range which surprised me. I contacted Lipton and they told me that the reason is that despite the use of oxygen impermeable packaging such as PET or glass, the tea still ‘loses’ flavonoids over its shelf life which is a long 9 to 12 months.
Additives. The ice tea has two food acids (citric acid and sodium citrate) as well as an antioxidant 300 (ascorbic acid aka vitamin C) which stops the drink going brownish or oxidised. These are additives that I regard as safe.
The bottom line
Of course, in rating drinks, all play second fiddle to good old water. So make water your primary drink and use the ice tea as an occasional thirst quencher. It’s a refreshing thirst quencher without being overly sweet. Finally if you want to consume the most flavonoids, you’re best off drinking hot tea which has a higher concentration – you’re getting more tea leaves per cup.