trying to have no sugar in tea

DrPepper1967

i usually have a sweetener or sugar in tea, i've gone cold turkey this week but i'm really not enjoying it. i realise it may take a while but i love my tea so am missing enjoying the drink.

Do you have any advice or tips?

elphie754

A low calorie sweetener like Splenda (only 4 calories)?

AnvilHead

DrPepper1967 wrote: »

i usually have a sweetener or sugar in tea, i've gone cold turkey this week but i'm really not enjoying it. i realise it may take a while but i love my tea so am missing enjoying the drink.

Do you have any advice or tips?

My advice/tip - if you don't have any medical conditions requiring you to reduce/avoid sugar and you can fit it in your calorie/macro goals for the day, enjoy your tea with sweetener/sugar. There's nothing evil about a teaspoon of sugar in your glass of tea.

TeaBea

I used a step-down approach for iced tea decades ago. I would make 1 gallon of iced tea with 1/4 cup sugar. A couple weeks later.... only 3 Tbls,......then 2 Tbls, etc.

I also found that switching from 100% plain black tea (or plain green tea).....to using a couple flavored tea bags helps smooth out the flavor a bit. 1 family size tea bag & 2 smaller flavored ones makes a nice (slightly fruit) 1/2 gallon pitcher.

Green tea - do not brew using boiling water. Too hot water makes green tea bitter. Stop heating the water before it boils.

DrPepper1967

Sorry i should have said that it's not a calorie thing really, but i do think that sweeteners make you crave sweet things and i have wanted to cut sugar/sweeteners out for a while now.

kgirlhart

I drink unsweetened tea and I like a little mint with it. You might try that.

JeromeBarry1

Squeeze 1/4 lemon in it. That's 3 calories worth of sugar and it might be very pleasant to you.

Madwife2009

I just went cold turkey when I was a teenager. The first week was awful but after that, no problems UNLESS someone put sugar in my tea. Nowadays, if I end up with tea with sugar in, I cannot drink it and have to spit it out, It's disgusting.

I don't think that there's an easy way to do it.

Had the same problem when I switched from normal tea to de-caffeinated (medical issue); it was horrible for about a week but after that, it was fine.

Christine_72

I used to have 3tsp of sugar in each cup of tea, times that by around 6 (sometimes more) cups a day, and that's a lot of sugar! I just slowly tapered down by a half tsp at a time until i was down to none. I add milk to my tea which probably helps. I can not drink straight black tea or coffee, it has to have milk or at least a couple tsp of sugar.

bkbirge

I don't know that there's a 'trick' to drinking it without sweetener, it's my preferred way to have tea - unsweet. There are plenty of herbal teas that don't have sweetener but have a satisfying taste, look at the stash brand. I use their super mint and gold chai a lot. The gold chai has that cinnamon aroma that while not really a substitute for sugar might help you weather the storm so to speak.

robininfl

Hot or iced?

Unsweet iced green tea is so good that even my 9 year old strongly prefers it to sweetened. In particular the Tazo one with lemongrass and mint.
Unsweet iced black tea is also good.
Try a little lemon in these, that might be good to you.

Unsweet hot green tea is pretty good

Hot black tea I can't stand without milk and sugar, sorry no help there.

crzycatlady1

elphie754 wrote: »

A low calorie sweetener like Splenda (only 4 calories)?

This is what I use in my tea-1/2 packet is more than enough to sweeten a cup

kshama2001

I tapered down to 1/2 t sugar per tea bag. Sometimes for a treat I will go back up to 1 t.

Christine_72

You'd be surprised how super sweet tea will taste if you add it back in after not having it for a while. Even a flat teaspoon makes it taste sickly sweet to me now.

AngInCanada

I used to have 2 tbsp sugar in my tea. I slowly started using less. Now I'm at 1 tsp and I just count the calories and I'm OK with it

Cheri1218

I enjoy several flavored teas with no sugar. Right now I'm loving Peach, and Raspberry by Bigelow (?). I also love Peppermint White Chocolate tea with no extra sweetener from Teavana. They are not super dark and that helps a lot.

jo_nz

Just keep going! It took me about 2 weeks to adapt to the taste of no sugar in my tea and coffee. Now I dislike even a small amount in there - just tastes wrong.

Maybe try some other sugar-free drinks while you adjust - flavoured tea or fruit infusions perhaps?

Skyblueyellow

I only drink mine unsweetened! I think it tastes delicious.

lynn_glenmont

Try herbal blends with naturally sweet flavors (e.g., cinnamon, mint, ginger, licorice/anise, orange)
Celestial Seasonings' tension tamer flavor is a nice blend of sweet flavors.
Good Earth original is a black tea/herbal blend with sweet flavors, if you want caffeine.
Or you experiment brewing pots with a mix of black tea and sweet herbal blends or tisanes.

Sabine_Stroehm

I drink a lot of tea, mostly not caffeinated. I add a bit of stevia to the teas that seem to need it, but that decreases over time.

I also add passion tea bags to water bottles.

etc.

khhregister

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Try herbal blends with naturally sweet flavors (e.g., cinnamon, mint, ginger, licorice/anise, orange)
Celestial Seasonings' tension tamer flavor is a nice blend of sweet flavors.
Good Earth original is a black tea/herbal blend with sweet flavors, if you want caffeine.
Or you experiment brewing pots with a mix of black tea and sweet herbal blends or tisanes.

That Good Earth tea is SO delicious on its own - I can't imagine adding anything to it.
I also like Yogi Tea in the Egyptian Licorice flavour - also spicy enough on its own
Another similar one is from Aveda - the tea they give you when you go into their salons. It's a mix of mint and licorice, and is just so delicious and soothing. You can buy a big jar of the loose tea to make at home.

Mainly I drink black teas and not herbal teas, but these are my three fav. herbal teas.
Personally I weaned myself off sugar in my black tea a few years ago. Still need milk, though.

lulalacroix

I love milk and sugar in my tea. I have slowly lowered the amount of sugar to 1/2 tsp from about 2 tsp. Personally I would never use a substitute because I love the sugar in my tea. I just log it in the morning for the whole day so I always have the calories for it.

Lounmoun

Try different flavors.
I like mint or apple cinnamon best.

Machka9

DrPepper1967 wrote: »

i usually have a sweetener or sugar in tea, i've gone cold turkey this week but i'm really not enjoying it. i realise it may take a while but i love my tea so am missing enjoying the drink.

Do you have any advice or tips?

Drink different tea.

You wouldn't want to put any sort of sweetener into a rooibos chai tea, that would make it way too sweet. Even a lemon ginger is just fine without sweetening.

Orphia

DrPepper1967 wrote: »

Sorry i should have said that it's not a calorie thing really, but i do think that sweeteners make you crave sweet things and i have wanted to cut sugar/sweeteners out for a while now.

Wouldn't cutting out sweet things make you crave them even more?

Careful you're not doing this just for puritanical reasons. There is such a mass hysteria about sugar these days.

rdfaria

I had the same problem, I love sugar in tea! But then a light bulb went off in my head, why not switch tea. And so I did. I found a tea that taste great without sugar. - There are hundreds of tea's on the market and many of them taste great without sugar.

jaedwa1

Cheri1218 wrote: »

I enjoy several flavored teas with no sugar. Right now I'm loving Peach, and Raspberry by Bigelow (?). I also love Peppermint White Chocolate tea with no extra sweetener from Teavana. They are not super dark and that helps a lot.

Peppermint White Chocolate is heaven!!