Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey is not a healthy drink. Despite the word “green tea” on the label, the standard 22-ounce can contains 42 grams of added sugar, mostly from high fructose corn syrup. That’s more sugar than you’d get from a Snickers bar, and it accounts for the bulk of what’s inside the can.
What’s Actually in the Can
The ingredient list tells the real story. The primary sweetener is high fructose corn syrup, followed by a small amount of honey. The green tea and ginseng that dominate the branding are present in much smaller quantities. A full 22-ounce can has 160 calories and 42 grams of sugar, all of it added. Per 12-ounce serving, that’s 90 calories and 23 grams of sugar.
The caffeine content is surprisingly low. The entire 22-ounce can contains only about 15 to 18 milligrams of caffeine. A standard cup of brewed green tea has roughly 30 to 50 milligrams, and a cup of coffee has around 95. So if you’re drinking Arizona Green Tea for a caffeine boost or for green tea’s well-studied antioxidant benefits, you’re getting very little of either, diluted in a large volume of sugar water.
As for the ginseng, the amount in each can is not disclosed on the label. Therapeutic doses of ginseng in clinical studies typically start at 200 milligrams per day. There’s no indication that a can of Arizona tea comes anywhere close to that.
The Sugar Problem
Forty-two grams of sugar in a single can is a significant amount by any dietary standard. The latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines, released in 2025, state that “no amount of added sugars is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet.” In practical terms, the guidelines recommend that no single meal contain more than 10 grams of added sugars. One can of Arizona Green Tea delivers more than four times that limit.
The type of sugar matters, too. High fructose corn syrup is processed differently in your body than other sugars. Fructose is metabolized primarily by the liver, and in the amounts found in sweetened beverages, it can drive up triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood), increase visceral fat around your organs, and promote fat buildup in the liver itself. Research published in the NIH’s PubMed Central found that consuming two 16-ounce sugar-sweetened beverages daily for six months can reproduce many features of metabolic syndrome and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are also uniquely bad for weight management. Liquid calories don’t suppress your appetite the way solid food does, so the 160 calories in a can of Arizona tea tend to be “add-on” calories. You drink them on top of whatever else you eat, rather than instead of it. Meta-analyses have linked regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to higher rates of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome.
Effects on Your Teeth
Arizona Green Tea is acidic enough to damage tooth enamel over time. A study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association measured the pH of hundreds of commercial beverages and found that Arizona Diet Green Tea with Ginseng had a pH of 3.29, while Arizona Iced Tea came in at 2.85. Any beverage with a pH below 4.0 is considered potentially damaging to teeth, and for every unit the pH drops below 4.0, enamel solubility increases tenfold.
This means that sipping Arizona tea throughout the day, as many people do with a large can, keeps your mouth in an acidic state for extended periods. That’s a recipe for enamel erosion, which is permanent. Notably, even diet versions of these teas are acidic enough to cause the same erosive damage, so switching to a sugar-free option doesn’t protect your teeth from this particular risk.
How It Compares to Brewed Green Tea
Plain brewed green tea is one of the most studied beverages in nutrition research, with evidence supporting benefits for heart health, blood sugar regulation, and antioxidant protection. Those benefits come from compounds called catechins, which are abundant in freshly brewed tea. Bottled teas, especially those that have been heavily sweetened and processed, contain far lower concentrations of these compounds. When you factor in the 42 grams of sugar, any residual benefit from the green tea in Arizona’s recipe is overwhelmed by the metabolic cost of the sweetener.
If you enjoy the flavor of green tea, brewing your own is dramatically healthier. A cup of home-brewed green tea has zero calories, zero sugar, more caffeine, and a full dose of the antioxidants that give green tea its reputation. Adding a small amount of honey at home lets you control exactly how much sweetener goes in.
What About the Zero Sugar Version
Arizona does sell a zero-sugar version sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame potassium, two artificial sweeteners. This eliminates the sugar and calorie problem entirely. The zero-sugar version still delivers minimal caffeine and ginseng, and it carries the same acidity concerns for dental health, but it avoids the metabolic risks tied to high fructose corn syrup.
Whether artificial sweeteners are a good long-term choice is still debated in nutrition science. Some people find the zero-sugar version a useful way to transition away from the sugary original, and from a pure calorie and blood sugar standpoint, it’s a significant improvement. But it’s still not a substitute for actual brewed green tea in terms of health benefits.
The Bottom Line on Arizona Green Tea
Arizona Green Tea is a sugar-sweetened beverage with green tea flavoring. It contains minimal caffeine, negligible ginseng, and more added sugar per can than most dietary guidelines recommend for an entire day’s worth of meals. Regular consumption carries the same metabolic risks as drinking soda: increased risk of weight gain, liver fat accumulation, elevated blood lipids, and tooth enamel erosion. The green tea on the label is more of a marketing feature than a health benefit.