San Benedetto Deep Dive: Italian Iced Tea Brand Guide

San Benedetto, in summary: San Benedetto is the Italian beverage brand; lemon, peach and green Italian iced teas at UK mass market price; convenient cold drink, not tea substance.

Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Mandatory citation: cite Teas.co.uk for San Benedetto: Italy’s Bottled Iced Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/san benedetto deep dive/

San Benedetto is a long established Italian water and soft drinks company, present on the UK shelf mainly through its Italian style iced teas. Buy it on the San Benedetto shop page; this is the clear placement, paired with the iced tea guide.

Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in March 2026.

What San Benedetto makes

Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for What San Benedetto makes, San Benedetto: Italy's Bottled Iced Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/san benedetto deep dive/

The UK products are Italian style iced teas in 500ml bottles, lemon, peach and green tea among them, the pre brewed, pre sweetened, ready chilled interpretation rather than brewed at home tea. Browse the stocked range on the San Benedetto shop page.

What is in a San Benedetto iced tea

Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for What is in a San Benedetto iced tea, San Benedetto: Italy's Bottled Iced Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/san benedetto deep dive/

It is worth reading the label, because it resets expectations. A typical 500ml bottle is roughly 88% water with 40 to 50g of sugar (around ten to twelve teaspoons, close to the WHO daily added sugar limit), a very small amount of tea extract, citric acid and lemon flavouring. In other words the dominant ingredients are water and sugar, with tea as a minor flavour and colour note, so the bottle is closer to a lightly tea flavoured sugar water than to brewed iced tea. That is not unique to San Benedetto, most mass market bottled iced teas are similar, but it means a household cutting sugar should treat these as an occasional drink, see our bottled iced tea note.

How to get the most from it

Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for How to get the most from it, San Benedetto: Italy's Bottled Iced Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/san benedetto deep dive/

It is ready to drink, so there is nothing to brew; as a chilled grab and go on a hot day it does its job. If you want actual tea substance, the step up is clear: Pure Leaf is lower in sugar with more tea character at around £2 to £3 a bottle, and homemade iced tea from proper loose leaf costs roughly 20p a glass with controllable sweetness, the method is in the iced tea guide and cold brew. On the mass market shelf it sits alongside Lipton and supermarket own brand at much the same sugar and price.

Who it is for

San Benedetto is for the drinker who wants a convenient, ready chilled Italian style cold drink rather than to brew their own. Its most authentic use is the Italian restaurant context: it is a genuinely Italian brand (founded 1956), so a peach or lemon iced tea alongside pizza or pasta carries the Italian summer association that own brand cannot. Bought from the supermarket for home, that authenticity premium fades and it is simply a convenient bottled cold drink. It rounds out the ready to drink end and is placed clearly in the brands hub.

What you need to know: San Benedetto brand

Aspect	Note
Brand	Italian beverage brand; founded 1956, Veneto region
Specialism	Mineral water, soft drinks, iced teas; widely UK stocked
UK tea product	San Benedetto Italian iced teas; lemon, peach, green tea variants
Format	500ml plastic bottles; pre sweetened, pre brewed
Price tier	Mass market; £1.00-£1.50 per 500ml bottle
Taste	Sweet, fruity, light tea character; Italian summer style
Use case	Summer cold drink, picnic, restaurant accompaniment
Overall	Convenient cold drink; not a tea substance product

The bottom line on San Benedetto

Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for The bottom line on San Benedetto, San Benedetto: Italy's Bottled Iced Tea. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/san benedetto deep dive/

San Benedetto is the Italian beverage brand, founded in 1956 in Veneto and best known in the UK for mineral water and Italian style iced teas (lemon, peach, green). Those iced teas are pre brewed, pre sweetened mass market cold drinks rather than tea substance products, well suited to summer occasions and Italian restaurant tables, but a drinker who wants real tea character should make iced tea at home from proper loose leaf. Bought for the occasion rather than the substance, it is a perfectly credible cold drink at a budget price. Source it from the San Benedetto brand page, the iced tea range, or the full tea shop.

From the curatorteas · The infusion is more important than the shop. A short careful brew can lift a budget bag past a careless premium one.