TeaChat

yeah like a good yunnan gold tea. Something with that roasted sugar cane vibe going on.

Honestly though you should just go cold turkey. Its like eating milk chocolate all your life and someone gives you a piece of high end dark chocolate and it taste like bitter ear wax. However the more you eat the more you see the complexities and sweetness there in. Its the same with tea all those flavours are there for the taking but you need to teach the palate.

When I started oolongs and white and greens just tasted like hay water to me but as time went on I got my tea goggles on and was able to see/taste the profile better and better.

Putting sweetners in my teas now would just destroy so much of that profile I love.

I still drink assam with milk and real sugar though...but that's like a whole separate drink to me

yeah, some darks just work well with cream and sugar. Just stay away from the artificial stuff.

As a tea noob, I still need lots of sweetener--too much to use sugar. I use Splenda. Until I can wean myself off sweetener altogether, it's the best option for me.

Stevia is the best I have found. I stay away from all processed artifical sweetners. Even things based on Stevia, like purvia. Why not just use the original that you can grow yourself instead of paying a second best.

Cyphre wrote:Stevia is the best I have found. I stay away from all processed artifical sweetners. Even things based on Stevia, like purvia. Why not just use the original that you can grow yourself instead of paying a second best.

Have you found a Stevia that doesn't have a that slightly licorice taste? I bought some Stevia in the Raw and sadly it still imparts that flavor even thought the manufacturer claims it doesn't. But at least it is a natural sweetener.

I got some that was just ground stevia leaves from the local whole foods type of place. I didn't notice any flavor in it. It was a smoother sweet flavor then sugar though. It started barely sweet and the longer I held it in my mouth the sweeter it got. Unlike sugar which hits with the sweetness right from the get go.

Cyphre wrote:I got some that was just ground stevia leaves from the local whole foods type of place. I didn't notice any flavor in it. It was a smoother sweet flavor then sugar though. It started barely sweet and the longer I held it in my mouth the sweeter it got. Unlike sugar which hits with the sweetness right from the get go.

Really? I've tasted sugar and various stevia brands side-by-side a few times and each time I've been able to detect a flavor in the Stevia. Sugar just seems more neutrally sweet to me, unless it is brown crystals.

At the beginning of the year, I cut out all processed sugar. I usually don't sweeten my tea, but when I do, I use a small amount of Agave nectar. It can be found at most health food stores and is an all natural substitute for processed sugar. It is low on the GI scale, as well. I like it SO much better than stevia. It doesn't leave that weird aftertaste that you get with Stevia or Splenda for that matter.

I use splenda since I am diabetic as well. I am trying not to sweeten any tea but since right now I'm only drinking masala chai I tend to sweeten it and use lots of real cream. Oh so yummy!

But I'll be getting a few 2oz samples of some flavored tea this coming week so I'll try it without splenda and see how I like it. I tend to like sweetened drinks moreso than non-sweetened drinks.

I'm interested in stevia since it's natural but I have a TON of splenda here that I have to use up before I buy anymore sweeteners LOL I bought the $13 box of splenda packets 2 years ago. But I quit drinking tea about 4 months after I started (not sure why I stopped).. So I still have a lot of splenda left. I mostly drink masala but I'm trying to broaden my horizons to other teas. I'm really enjoying this process of learning about tea.

If I had to I would use saccharin or equal but prefer splenda for now.