Hot drinks??

Not a silly question.....the more sugar you can cut out of your diet, the better. It's been my main struggle.

As you stated in your post, I started off with more fruity teas. I also love mint tea (peppermint, spearmint, etc), and these are "sweeter" than black teas. I also made them iced (I have no idea why iced tasted better without sugar than hot). Once I got used to this, I have been able to drink hot tea without sugar. I still struggle with black teas and no sugar, though. I also recommend buying better quality loose leaf teas (which, you may already do). They are smoother and don't leave bitter tastes like some of the cheaper stuff. A place in my area, Souvia, has the best loose leaf teas. I think Teavana is another popular one.

It took me a long time to drink black coffee (I love vanilla creamer). But, back in May, I stopped putting creamer in to cut back my sugar intake. I had read somewhere, and was suggested by 3 of my colleagues, to put coconut oil in my coffee. So, I did this for about a month and a half, then stopped doing that. The coconut oil helped with my transition to black coffee. Anywhere that I can cut sugar out of my diet is a plus for me. It has also made me a lot pickier about types of tea and coffee I buy now because I can actually TASTE the tea and coffee. It's hard to buy cheap stuff now.

I hope that helps some......have a great day.

Experiment with different kinds of tea (I'm currently into this Republic of Tea cinnamon and cardamom one as an alternative to morning coffee -- I wouldn't think it would need any sweetening at all) and taper the sugar back in the ones you use it in -- you may find you get used to it less sweet.

I never liked tea or coffee sweetened, but I used to like a lot of milk in coffee and some teas. That's how I changed from that to liking it it black. (I did this unrelated to dieting, and years ago.)

I like the Republic of Tea Orange Ginger Mint -discovered it via Panera if you want to try before ordering. I also like Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice. The Bengal Spice tastes suspiciously sweet to me, kind of like an atomic fireball candy, but I keep checking the ingredients and not finding anything I don't want.

unsweetened cocoa

I drink alot of tea everyday. I used to have 3tsp of sugar in every cup, plus milk. I just started reducing by 1/2 a tsp at a time, until i got down to none. I never, ever thought i could drink tea with no sugar, but now it tastes too sweet with any sugar added at all! I do have it with full cream milk though which takes the edge off.

The Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea has a crapton of flavor. No sugar needed.