TeaForum.org

I'm interested in your opinion, what do you use to sweeten the tea and why? Is it true that I shouldn't sweeten my tea?

i don't add stuff to tea except for when i'm having a "tea drink" like a tw-style milk tea or a chai. i usually buy them from a café, though.

it's not a matter of should or shouldn't. it's what you like.

that said, i think that we "should" avoid unnecessary added sugars in our diet, and i am accustomed to enjoying plain tea and water. i drink it for flavor, relaxation, and concentration.

I think adding sweeteners to tea is mostly what people addicted or accustomed to excessively sweetened tastes do, i.e., it is less about the beverage and more about a sweetness delivery vehicle to satisfy a craving. There are, as ever, many reasons for this, but from a perspective of behavioural clarity and longer term health implications, people are generally well advised to control or overcome such cravings, rather than following daily impulse.

I think deepening an interest in tea for its inherent unaided merits can help with this. Supermarket tea, and even the first echelon of poor quality online retailer tea, is often lacking in a way that invites additives to give flavour, or mask excessive bitterness and astringency. But if one more carefully sources and compares tea, it would soon turn into a bit of a crime to muddle it with such overpowering additives. Thus, exploring the world of tea could wean people off potentially unhealthy additives and replace the habit by cultivating an interest in other aspects. Replacing an interest in sugar water with an interest in actual tea.

This may naturally take a while unless there is concentrated willpower at work. It appears that the tuning of sweet taste perception over time is quite responsive based on what we consume, but neuronal changes take some time. People who do not generally consume sweetened drinks and foods are often put off by the level of sweetness of many (particularly processed) food products, which do contain unreasonably high levels of sugars or artificial sweeteners from a nutritional perspective, which is in turn a good indicator how far astray our collective taste buds have ridden the dragon of perceived pleasure. The same sweet molecules gradually taste less sweet, and people ultimately begin to mess with their physiology, yet are too busy with other aspects of life to discern this, or give it importance.

I personally don't like to sweeten my teas since I find it detracts from the cup itself. When I make my tea, I'll usually just make it raw with other non sweetener additives such as lemon juice or milk.

Sasha wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:57 pm

I'm interested in your opinion, what do you use to sweeten the tea and why? Is it true that I shouldn't sweeten my tea?

Do what you want.

But please note that if you get truly high quality, loose leaf tea - adding anything might be akin to adding coca cola to fine wine (which is apparently a common practice in China)

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 9:16 am

adding coca cola to fine wine (which is apparently a common practice in China)

hah, sounds possibly good tbh. maybe kinda like sangria...?

pedant wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 11:22 am

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 9:16 am

adding coca cola to fine wine (which is apparently a common practice in China)

hah, sounds possibly good tbh. maybe kinda like sangria...?

Give it a try, hahahaha

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 9:16 am

Sasha wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 31, 2023 3:57 pm

I'm interested in your opinion, what do you use to sweeten the tea and why? Is it true that I shouldn't sweeten my tea?

Do what you want.

But please note that if you get truly high quality, loose leaf tea - adding anything might be akin to adding coca cola to fine wine (which is apparently a common practice in China)

It's common in Spain too

I don't add anything to my tea. I can understand why people would add milk or sugar to lower-quality black tea to cut down on the bitterness, but the teas I drink aren't bitter to start with. As others have mentioned, putting additives in higher-quality tea feels like making expensive wine into a spritzer. Having said that, everyone is different and I won't judge.

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 5:15 pm

As others have mentioned, putting additives in higher-quality tea feels like making expensive wine into a spritzer.

"Serious" people add crazy-expensive things (think truffles, saffron) to food rather than eating them alone or infusing them, so it is certainly is not a universal thing that experiencing things "at their purest" (whatever that means) is the educated, sophisticated way to go. I would hazard a guess that few members here would chew on fresh tea leaves : we choose to have our tea deeply transformed and dried, then add hot, carefully selected water to it months or years after it was processed. We mess with nature's recipe quite a lot to begin with, adding sugar seems like a rounding error in the grand scheme of things.

For what it is worth, I do not sweeten my tea.

faj wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 7:47 am

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 5:15 pm

As others have mentioned, putting additives in higher-quality tea feels like making expensive wine into a spritzer.

"Serious" people add crazy-expensive things (think truffles, saffron) to food rather than eating them alone or infusing them, so it is certainly is not a universal thing that experiencing things "at their purest" (whatever that means) is the educated, sophisticated way to go. I would hazard a guess that few members here would chew on fresh tea leaves : we choose to have our tea deeply transformed and dried, then add hot, carefully selected water to it months or years after it was processed. We mess with nature's recipe quite a lot to begin with, adding sugar seems like a rounding error in the grand scheme of things.

For what it is worth, I do not sweeten my tea.

So why don't you sweeten your tea?

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:29 am

So why don't you sweeten your tea?

Because I don't wanna.

I have never even tried, so I could not for sure say I prefer it without sugar. Sure, health-wise it is preferable, but it is not a case where I even am tempted to do it and refrain from doing so. Let's say I am too close-minded to even try with sugar.

I sweeten most of my teas with iron, courtesy of my tetsubin.

Me too, I don’t wanna either usually… Except with certain teas when adding sugar just taste better, then I’ll add some as a guilty pleasure and maybe out of old habits too. Like with peppermint tea or bergamot infused Earl Grey, those I’ll add sugar to. Peppermint and bergamot oils seem to pair well with sugar. I mostly use lower glycemic coconut palm sugar or monk fruit sweetener. Otherwise, sugar just doesn’t improve a good oolong, gyokuro or Darjeeling.

faj wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 7:47 am

GaoShan wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 5:15 pm

As others have mentioned, putting additives in higher-quality tea feels like making expensive wine into a spritzer.

"Serious" people add crazy-expensive things (think truffles, saffron) to food rather than eating them alone or infusing them, so it is certainly is not a universal thing that experiencing things "at their purest" (whatever that means) is the educated, sophisticated way to go. I would hazard a guess that few members here would chew on fresh tea leaves : we choose to have our tea deeply transformed and dried, then add hot, carefully selected water to it months or years after it was processed. We mess with nature's recipe quite a lot to begin with, adding sugar seems like a rounding error in the grand scheme of things.

For what it is worth, I do not sweeten my tea.

I don't have a problem "messing with nature" if the result tastes good and the ingredients work well together. I think most people would agree that sugar won't do high-quality tea any favours. This could be a cultural thing as much as a personal one. Snobbery and culture aside, though, we should make our tea however we enjoy drinking it.

I'm having the last few steeps of a charcoal roasted Dong Ding today and no sugar is involved.