Best affordable sweet tea in the Triangle? We price checked (& tasted) 20 spots
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- We taste-tested 20 fast food sweet teas across the Triangle earlier this year.
- Large sweet tea prices varied widely, with the priciest more than double the cheapest.
- Three favorites named included Waffle House, Cook Out and Hardee’s among testers.
Sweet tea is an affordable delicacy.
Earlier this year, we set out to find the very best fast food sweet tea in the Triangle, tasting 20 of the top brands. We found some excellent teas, lots of surprises and a range of prices.
Sweet tea is never expensive, running just a few dollars for a large taste of Southern summer, but the prices and value varied widely among the spots we sampled. The most expensive sweet tea was more than twice the price of the cheapest, which can really add up when feeding a group.
Here’s a price check on 20 fast food sweet teas found in the Triangle. These are the prices for large sweet teas, including tax, and no discounts. (Notably some restaurants, like Bojangles, charge less for a large tea than a medium.)
Best sweet tea in NC
We sought out the best fast food sweet tea in the Triangle earlier this month. Our three favorites:
- Drew Jackson chose Waffle House, followed by Cook Out and Hardee’s.
- Twumasi Duah-Mensah chose Hardee’s, followed by Whataburger and Zaxby’s.
This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 8:00 AM.
