Maple Iced Tea Recipe, Lighter Sweet Tea

This Maple Iced Tea is a refined sugar-free iced tea recipe that uses pure maple syrup to add a hint of sweetness, minerals, and antioxidants to your sweet tea.

This lighter sweet tea recipe has been our go-to from-scratch iced tea recipe for years. It’s refreshing, simple, and has that wonderful sweetness that comes with sweet tea. We honestly didn’t even think about posting this recipe on our blog until recently.

We made this iced tea for a party and was asked for the recipe several times. Everyone loved that we used maple syrup instead of sugar. It was such a hit that we decided to share the recipe here.

If you love from-scratch tea recipes, try our sweet strawberry iced tea or Fresh mint tea recipes.

Why this recipe works

• It uses maple syrup, which is a healthier alternative to refined white sugar.
  • We also love that maple syrup is good for you! Not only is it full of antioxidants, but it also has nutrients like riboflavin, zinc, magnesium, calcium and potassium.
• It is simple to put together. All you need is three ingredients, including water!
• It tastes satisfying!

Recipe ingredients

• Black tea bags– you can use any kind of black tea that you like.
• Water– some of it will be boiling hot and some of it will be cold.
• Pure maple syrup– make sure you are using pure maple syrup and not a fake pancake syrup ( which is just high fructose corn syrup or flavored sugar). Using pure maple syrup ensures that there is no sugar inside.

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Step by step instructions

Step 1

Step 1: Add boiled water and tea bags to a large pitcher. Let it steep for 10-15 minutes, then remove the bags.

Step 2

Step 2: Add the maple syrup and mix.

Step 3

Step 3: Add cold water to the pitcher and mix.

Step 4

Step 4: Refrigerate the tea until ready to serve.

Recipe FAQs

The only calories in this recipe come from the maple syrup, so if you are using the amount in this recipe, which is 1/3 cup, then one serving of this iced tea would be about 36 calories.

Yes! Taste the sweet tea before you refrigerate it to make sure it is the right amount of sweetness for you. If you like very sweet sweet tea then you may want to add more maple syrup.

Yes! You can use honey and keep the recipe the same. Just note that it won’t be Vegan if you use honey ( and if that is important to you).