Panda Express Sweet Tea

Sweet Tea is the highest calorie drink at Panda Express: 410 calories with 101 g of sugar in the published serving, $2.20 for a small. Nothing else on the fountain carries more, and most people order it assuming tea is the light choice.

Brewed black tea sweetened heavily in the southern style, it tastes clean and refreshing precisely because the sugar is dissolved rather than carbonated, which hides how much is in there. That is the trap: a cold sweet tea goes down faster than a soda and carries just as much sugar, sometimes more.

The comparison worth making is with the unsweetened version. Unsweetened tea at 0 calories is the same brewed tea with nothing added, at the same $2.20 price. Switching saves 410 calories, more than swapping Fried Rice at 620 calories for Super Greens at 130 would save on your side. It is the single largest free calorie cut in the store.

It suits anyone who genuinely wants sweet tea and is counting it deliberately. If you like tea rather than sugar, the unsweetened options taste more of tea anyway. The full range including green and black teas sits on the Panda Express drinks menu.