Where to buy Swiss iced tea online: delivery across Switzerland

If you live in Switzerland and want to buy iced tea online from a Swiss producer, three things decide whether the bottle is worth ordering: what is in it, how it was stabilised, and how it reaches you. This guide explains how to read each of those on a label and a product page, and how Vitalay approaches delivery across the country.

Iced tea, thé froid, Eistee: one drink, four names

Switzerland is multilingual, and so is its iced tea. In French-speaking Switzerland the drink is called thé froid, in German-speaking Switzerland Eistee, in Italian-speaking Switzerland tè freddo, and in English you will see both "iced tea" and "ice tea". The words differ but the product category is the same: tea served cold, usually lightly sweetened.

This matters when you shop online. A search for "iced tea" on a general marketplace returns powdered mixes, concentrates and imported brands alongside bottled Swiss products. Searching in the local language, or looking for a producer that states its origin clearly, narrows the field quickly. Vitalay is a Swiss company that makes its iced teas in Switzerland, and its shop is available in French, German, English and Italian.

For a broader look at what separates an artisan bottle from a supermarket one, our article on Swiss artisan iced tea compares them point by point. Here we focus on the practical side of buying.

What to look for on the label

A bottle of iced tea tells you a lot in four lines. Before ordering, check these.

The ingredients list. A short list is easier to understand. Vitalay Jasmine Iced Tea contains water, unrefined cane sugar and jasmine green tea, nothing else. Moroccan Iced Tea contains water, unrefined cane sugar, green tea and mint. If a label lists "natural flavouring" or a long run of additives, you are looking at a different kind of product.

The sugar per 100 ml. Almost every iced tea contains sugar, and the figure is always given per 100 ml, which makes bottles of different sizes comparable. Vitalay declares 4.8 g per 100 ml for Jasmine and 7 g per 100 ml for Moroccan, both from unrefined cane sugar, with no sweeteners. Read the number rather than the adjectives on the front of a bottle: it is the only way to compare honestly.

The way it was stabilised. A bottle that sits on an ambient shelf for months has usually been pasteurised with heat or contains preservatives. Vitalay bottles are stabilised by cold high pressure, known as HPP, and are never pasteurised. If you want the technical background, we explain it in what HPP is and why Vitalay uses it.

The storage instruction. This one is easy to miss and it is the most useful. A bottle stabilised without heat or preservatives has to be kept cold. The Vitalay product pages say to keep the bottle refrigerated at 5 °C.

Why a chilled bottle changes how you buy

Because Vitalay iced teas are not heat-sterilised, they behave like fresh products. That has a practical consequence for an online order: you plan around the fridge, not the pantry.

When a parcel arrives, put the bottles in the refrigerator rather than leaving them on a counter. The use-by date is printed on each bottle, so you can see how long you have. Once a bottle is opened, finish it within a day or two and keep it chilled in the meantime.

None of this is complicated, but it explains why an artisan iced tea is not always found in the ambient aisle of a shop, and why ordering directly from the producer or from a stockist with a proper cold chain is the sensible route. Our piece on the cold chain for iced tea (in French) goes into storage in more detail.

Cold-brewed for twelve hours

"Cold brew" is now a common phrase for coffee, and it applies to tea as well. Instead of steeping the leaves in hot water for a few minutes, the tea infuses slowly in cold water. Vitalay cold-brews its iced teas for 12 hours in Switzerland.

The point of the long, cold infusion is to draw out the character of the tea without the sharper bitterness that high heat can bring. In practice this gives a clear, rounded drink in which the tea itself, rather than a flavouring, is what you taste. For one product in detail, see how Vitalay brews its jasmine iced tea.

The range, bottle by bottle

Four core drinks make up the Vitalay range, all in 50 cl bottles. Each has its own page in the shop with ingredients, sugar content, production notes and storage details.

• Jasmine Iced Tea: jasmine green tea, a clean floral infusion with a dry finish. A good first bottle if you have never tried an artisan iced tea.
• Moroccan Iced Tea: green tea and fresh mint, honest and refreshing, a little more herbal than the jasmine.
• Lemon Iced Tea: black tea and lemon, made with real lemon and no synthetic flavouring.
• Still Lemonade: pressed lemon, not sparkling. It contains no tea at all, which makes it a useful companion bottle.

If you would like a guided introduction before choosing, the page on Swiss iced tea from Vitalay presents the range and the thinking behind it.

How delivery works

Vitalay delivers across Switzerland, including Ticino. On the shop, delivery is free from CHF 80 of purchases, which is stated on every product page. You add the bottles you want to the cart, pay securely online and receive the parcel at home or at your workplace.

Two practical suggestions for expats and newcomers who are setting up a household. First, order a mixed selection of bottles on the first purchase, so that you can find out which profile you prefer before committing to a larger order. Second, make sure someone can receive the parcel and place the bottles in the fridge soon after delivery, since the drink is meant to be kept cold.

We do not publish delivery times or carrier details in this article, because they can vary with the destination and the day of the order. The shop is the place to check the current conditions at the moment you buy.

Ordering for a restaurant, a hotel or an office

Private customers buy by the bottle. Professionals work differently: restaurants, hotels and bars order in cartons of 16 bottles. If you run a business and want to put a Swiss artisan iced tea on your menu, see our professional page and the guide to iced tea suppliers for HoReCa. For ideas on how to present non-alcoholic drinks on a menu, read how to build a non-alcoholic drinks menu.

A short checklist before you order

1. Read the ingredients: short and clear is better.
2. Compare the sugar per 100 ml, using grams, not marketing words.
3. Check how the drink was stabilised, and whether it needs the fridge.
4. Confirm that the producer states where the drink is made.
5. Plan where the bottles will be stored on arrival.

Buying a Swiss iced tea online is not very different from buying any fresh food product: the information is on the page, and the better the producer is at stating it plainly, the easier your choice becomes.

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Further reading

• Swiss iced tea from Vitalay: the range and the thinking behind it
• Swiss artisan iced tea: artisan against industrial, point by point
• What is HPP and why does Vitalay use it?: the stabilisation method explained
• Jasmine Iced Tea, Moroccan Iced Tea, Lemon Iced Tea and Still Lemonade: the full range