Iced tea drinkers?
 

I'm a big fan of iced tea. I have been cutting back on sugars & caffeine lately so now when I make it I found a tip that some of you may enjoy. :)
I add just one Apple Cinnamon tea bag to my regular decaf tea while it steeps. It really gives the tea a wonderful taste plus now I use less sugar & I LOVE it. (Plus the aroma is wonderful.) I've tried other flavors like Peach but my favorite is the apple cinnamon.

I love iced tea and am going to buy some Apple Cinnamon teabags for a trial. Anything that would help me use less sugar or Stevia, etc., would be nice. And I love Apple Cinnamon smells in the kitchen and den! Fall is here when I smell that.

Jeanie, Celestial Seasonings is the brand I use but I'm sure others are good too.

I also love mulled spiced wine...the apple cinnamon works great for that as well. ;)

Mmmm sounds good! :thumbup: I love iced tea, and that's mainly what I drink on a daily basis. I will have to try that kind. I've had raspberry, peach, lemon, etc., but never saw apple cinnamon.

Love ice tea here too. I thought Ice tea was mainly a southern thing though!

I normally drink mine unsweetened w/ Splenda. Publis makes a good one also thya is sweeten with Splenda.

Apple cinnamon I haven't heard and would love to give it a try.

That Celestial Seasons seemed to trigger a memory! I think way way back I bought some of that - can almost see the box. But I seem to remember I just made hot tea from it and never even thought of adding a bag to regular tea brew for iced tea but now I will for sure.

I've never had Peach or Raspberry tea. Are they really good? Had a coworker who used to stir this awful looking orangey powder from some kind of "Peach Tea" huge box of powder into tap water, add some artificial sweetener and only a few ice cubes and drink it! UGGHIE!!!!! It smelled like that fake fruit bubblegum mixed with old socks or something and the odor would go all through the office for a while. I would get sick from that fake odor and I think it just turned me against flavored teas. That stuff she drank was probably still warm just out of the tap and with so little ice - it was foul. Don't know how she stood it! Let alone drank that box of orange powder stuff every day when we had cafes on campus, cafeteria in the basement and vending machines everywhere near. We had bottles of cold ice-tea right in the vending machines.

What kind of Peach/Raspberry teas do you all use? They don't taste or smell really fake or weird?

Apple Cinnamon sounds great. I drink iced tea daily, mostly Green Tea plus some Lipton Mango/Peach. The fruit teas to replace craving sugar but I still add a little Splenda too.

Have you guys ever tried kombucha before?

I add a jasmine tea bag to mine.
I like cinnamon spiced tea as well. When I went to the Dominican, they served us spiced tea and it was so good.

My favorite is French Vanilla! Hot or cold,,,, I think I will have some right now.

Never heard of it ... what is it?

As for the flavored teas, I've had peach and raspberry from Lipton and Snapple.

Yeah, I have tried those pre-made mix with water drinks in the past but I could never get past the "fake" taste they all seemed to have. I know if it wasn't super cold there's no way I'd have been able to get it down.

I can't "do" the sugar substitutes! bleh :D

I'd never heard of kombucha either Stacey so I used my friend Google to check it out. I ran across this article & it made me decide I'll steer clear, thank you very much! :eek: Kombucha Tea

Hmm, I'll have to give the Jasmine a try! Thanks for the idea. :)

French Vanilla TEA?! Interesting...I'll have to look & see if I can find that flavor. Would you mind sharing the brand?

Sherry, I'm from the south, I drink tea :lol tears. I believe it's a requirement.

I avoid drinking sugar at all costs since I'm a type 2 diabetic. If I'm going to indulge in a sugar rush, I eat it. :D That being said I don't do artificial sweeteners either. I do use Stevia and Monk Fruit. Both are natural fruit sweeteners and both are passable.

I'm not into the fancy teas, I drink a mixture of 1/2 Uncle Lee's green tea and black tea with lemon and/or lime. Most of the time it's iced tea, but in winter I have been known to enjoy a cup of hot tea.

The brand is Bigelow. After reading the box I had to try it! That and the fact that it's French vanilla! LOL

"We invite you to take a private moment to relax and unwind with a delightful cut of Bigelow French vanilla tea. It's rich vanilla flavor will calm down even the most hectic of days and because it has the added benefit of healthy antioxidants and no calories, its good for you too!

Remember, more good thing are what every lifestyle needs.
Vive le Bigelow French Vanilla Tea!"

I have to have sugar in my tea. But if I had to drink it without this would be the only one I would be able to take down without any sweetener

Raspberry Zinger by Celestial Seasonings is wonderful, it's made with natural ingredients and tastes incredible, I love it iced or warm. It also looks beautiful in a clear glass pitcher. Raspberry Zinger® Tea | Herbal Teas | Celestial Seasonings

I make my own kombucha now, as buying from the store is very expensive, about $3.99 a bottle about the size of a Snapple but skinnier. It's been made and drank for thousands of years, and supposed to be good for digestion, skin, and a host of other things.

Yes it looks scary. Oh well. Scary looking foods have never deterred me before. I just think it tastes great. It has natural carbonation and all the sugar is from fruit only. No refined sugars, practically no calories, tastes great and it's good for you!

Tea Sweetners
 

Tea is a very delicious drink. I drink some quite often but not an avid tea drinker. When I do drink tea, its usually black tea sweetened with Xylitol sweetener. I also have type 2 diabetes and this sweetener does not raise my sugar levels at all. It is stated on the package it is safe for type 2 diabetes!
If you are interested in trying it, try to get the type made from the Birch tree. Not the overseas type.. It is a one to one ratio to regular sugar and you can't tell the difference.

You probably already know this but just to be safe, I'm going to mention it to you anyway. Be sure your dogs can't get to the Xylitol or even the packaging it comes it - it can be extremely toxic to dogs in very tiny amounts. We had one member here who almost lost both of her babies because they licked some barbecue sauce that contained Xylitol. They were immediately rushed to the vet and both were ill from it, though one of them was gravely ill and spent quite a long time in ICU with acute liver failure.

Xylitol Toxicity in Dogs | VCA Animal Hospitals

xylitol
 

YES! Keep all packaging and product from your pets! I forgot to mention this when I posted about the tea. No onions, grapes, chocolate etc. Very bad for them. Thank you for correcting me!

I'd not heard about Xylitol being a toxin to dogs until I saw that thread about our members two little ones getting so sick from it a couple of years or so back! It was a shock to me to know that there was yet another fairly common thing around the house that could be so deadly to our dogs! While I couldn't find any of my food or condiments or sweeteners that contained it, a search of the cabinets turned up a doggie breath spray I'd bought but had never used on Tibbe that contained Xylitol!!!

I grew up in California, and I always drank tea. But I am a plain jane, no sugar or any sweeteners of any kind, not even lemon.

I use a 3 quart iced tea maker. I put a packet of crystal light (the size used to make 2 quarts) in with the ice and it dissolves into the tea when it spills over into the pitcher. It flavors the tea as well as sweetening it.

Doggie poisons
 

Just to be on the safe side, I always research any new food before I think about trying it with my little lady. She is 16 and wouldn't take very much to harm her badly. Now that she has survived the past ordeal, I have to be more careful than before. She was lifeless after the major operation to remove the bad tooth. The doc was worried she wouldn't pull through either.
I kept feeding her with the special food from the vet with a syringe. Also as much water as I could get her to swallow. She finally got enough strength to fight the attempt to feed her after several days. Still I kept giving her the rich food. About 8 days or so, she was moving around the house and found the water and food, started eating a little. Now, she is doing much better eating very good and drinking lots of water. It was touch and go for a few days but maybe with a little luck she will be ok again. Still blind and can't hear but we can get around that just as long as she is ok otherwise.

This is related only in that it mentions tea! As a southerner, iced tea is the most commonly served here, and when I make a pitcher, I always include a flavored tea bag-peach if I have it-just to make it interesting. I had an aunt who made a fabulous pitcher years ago, and I was complimenting it. She (one of my mom's four sisters) told explained why she made the best tea in of the five: "Your mom doesn't use enough tea, "A" doesn't use enough sugar, "B" adds soda, and "C" adds instant." Guess I heard that!

Anyway, I am a big hot tea drinker, and have finally gotten it down to a "recipe,"-one tea bag, two packets of Splenda, and two Mini-moos (ultrapasteurized creamers). My husband makes it perfectly now;)

Adds soda to tea? I had never heard of that. Wonder what adding soda is supposed to do - cut the acidity from the taste?

So many people seem to love adding peach to their tea, I'm just going to have to try it. I love a good pitcher of sweet, strong, ice-cold tea.

I have no idea, and four of the five are gone now. Maybe I will remember to ask my youngest aunt when I see her--although that wasn't her technique! Gosh, how I miss the ones who are gone!

Says on this website it is to neutralize the tannins and take the bitterness out of black tea. Soda does neutralize acid so it might in tea also. Hmmm. Might try a pinch next pitcher to see how I like it. I sometimes add a dash of salt to my brewing coffee so I might just try the soda in black tea.

Southern Sweet Tea With A Secret Ingredient | Garden Betty