You remember that summer back in 2019 when it felt like every beer brand was suddenly obsessed with tea? It was a weird time for the beverage aisle. Bud Light Lemon Tea Lager was right at the center of that storm. Honestly, it wasn't just another fruit-flavored beer gimmick. It was Anheuser-Busch trying to catch lightning in a bottle—or a can, rather—by blending the world’s most famous light lager with real black tea.
People were skeptical. Most of us still are when "tea" and "lager" appear in the same sentence.
But here is the thing about Bud Light Lemon Tea: it actually had a dedicated following for the brief window it existed on shelves. It wasn't just a flavored malt beverage like a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. It was a genuine lager. They used real cold-brewed tea. No corn syrup. No artificial flavors. It was a specific attempt to lean into the "wellness-adjacent" drinking trend where people wanted to know exactly what was in their cans.
The Rise and Fall of the Tea Beer Trend
Why did Bud Light Lemon Tea Lager even exist? Context matters here. In the late 2010s, the "sessionable" drink market was exploding. Hard seltzers were starting to eat everyone's lunch. Beer sales were sagging. Anheuser-Busch needed something that felt lighter than a heavy IPA but had more character than a standard light beer.
They looked at the success of things like Twisted Tea and wondered if they could do it with a beer base.
The launch was massive. You couldn't turn on a sports game in 2019 without seeing the commercials. It followed the success of Bud Light Orange and Bud Light Lime, which had already proven that the "citrus plus lager" formula was a money-maker. But tea was a different beast. It added an earthy, tannic quality that you don't usually find in a mass-market American lager.
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Some loved it. Others thought it tasted like a watered-down Arnold Palmer that someone had accidentally dropped a cigarette into. That’s the risk you take with experimental brews.
What was actually inside the can?
If you look at the technical specs, Bud Light Lemon Tea Lager sat at a comfortable 4.2% ABV. That’s standard for the brand. It had about 143 calories, which made it slightly heavier than a standard Bud Light (which clocks in at 110 calories) but lighter than many craft ales.
The ingredients list was surprisingly short:
- Water
- Barley Malt
- Rice
- Real Cold-Brewed Tea
- Natural Lemon Flavor
- Hops
That "real tea" claim wasn't just marketing fluff. If you poured it into a glass, you could see the amber tint that was several shades darker than the pale straw color of a normal Bud Light. The aroma was aggressively lemony, almost like a cleaning product if you sniffed too hard, but the actual taste was much more subtle. The tea provided a dry finish that cut through the sweetness of the lemon.
Why Bud Light Lemon Tea Lager Disappeared
You can't find it now. Not easily, anyway. By 2020 and 2021, the product started vanishing from regional markets.
What went wrong? It wasn't necessarily a "failure" in the way some product launches are. Instead, it was a victim of the great seltzer gold rush. When Bud Light Seltzer launched in early 2020, it became the company's primary focus. Why maintain a complex supply chain for a niche tea-flavored beer when you can move millions of cases of Black Cherry seltzer?
The pandemic also changed how people bought alcohol. We stopped browsing the aisles as much and started buying what we knew. Experimental flavors often require "liquid to lips" sampling at festivals or bars to survive. When the world shut down, those opportunities evaporated.
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The "Summer Seasonal" Trap
Most people don't realize that many of these flavors are designed to be "LTOs" or Limited Time Offerings. Anheuser-Busch frequently uses these launches to see what sticks. If a flavor doesn't reach a certain threshold of repeat purchases, they axe it and move on to the next thing—like the Bud Light Seltzer Lemon Tea variety pack that eventually followed.
Yes, they eventually moved the tea concept over to the seltzer line. It’s cheaper to produce, easier to market to a younger demographic, and fits the "zero sugar" trend that has dominated the last five years.
The Flavor Profile: A Post-Mortem
Let's get real about the taste for a second. If you were a craft beer snob, you hated this. It lacked the complexity of a sour or a shandy.
However, if you were sitting on a boat in 95-degree heat, it was arguably one of the most refreshing things the "Big Three" brewers ever put out. The tannins in the tea acted as a palate cleanser. It wasn't cloyingly sweet like a Mike’s Hard or even a Redd’s Apple Ale.
It occupied this weird middle ground.
- Too "beer-like" for seltzer fans.
- Too "fruity" for traditional beer drinkers.
- Too "mass-market" for the craft crowd.
When you try to please everyone, you sometimes end up pleasing no one. But for those who liked it, the loss was felt. There are still Reddit threads from 2023 and 2024 of people asking where they can find leftover stock or if there’s a close substitute.
Finding Alternatives in 2026
Since you probably can't find a fresh six-pack of Bud Light Lemon Tea Lager today—and you definitely shouldn't drink a can from 2019 if you find one in a dusty basement—what are the options?
The market has shifted toward "Hard Tea" as its own category. Brands like Sun Cruiser, Surfside, and the reigning champ Twisted Tea own this space now. But most of those aren't beer-based. They are usually made with a malt base or vodka.
If you want that specific "beer and tea" hit, your best bet is to make a "Beermosa" or a "Shandy" variant at home.
- Take a standard Bud Light.
- Mix it 70/30 with a high-quality, unsweetened iced tea.
- Squeeze in a fresh lemon wedge.
It actually tastes better than the canned version because you’re using fresh citrus oil instead of "natural flavors."
Lessons from the Lemon Tea Experiment
The legacy of Bud Light Lemon Tea Lager is really about the transition of the American palate. We’ve moved away from wanting "just beer." We want hybrids. We want cross-category drinks. This specific lager was a bridge between the old world of domestic pilsners and the new world of "Ready-to-Drink" (RTD) cocktails and flavored malt beverages.
It also proved that consumers actually care about ingredients. The fact that they used real tea was a major selling point in their advertising. It showed that even the biggest players in the industry knew they couldn't just use chemicals and food coloring anymore.
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Next Steps for the Curious Drinker:
If you’re looking to scratch that itch for a tea-based alcoholic beverage, skip the dusty back shelves of liquor stores looking for old inventory. Instead, look for the newer wave of spirit-based iced teas that have lower sugar content. Brands like Surfside have taken the concept of "real tea" and refined it for a market that is moving away from bubbles and toward flat, easy-to-drink refreshments. If you absolutely insist on the beer element, check out local craft breweries; many are currently experimenting with "Earl Grey ESBs" or "Green Tea Saisons" which offer a much more sophisticated take on the profile Bud Light was trying to capture.