Plain, milk, or sugar?
I’m a plain sort! I find milk and most sweets to take away from the taste of the tea itself.
On very rare occasions in one of my Assams I’ll use a drop or two of Agave Nectar, as I find it doesn’t change the flavor of the tea but just adds a very slight sweetness to it, no additional flavors otherwise.
Ice tea is a completely different monster. I don’t make it from my loose teas most of the time and when I do with them it’s a cold-steep experiment and I drink them unsweetened. Most of the time I use a standard bag tea like Lipton or Tetley and sweeten it strongly or, since I rarely make it at home, order it that way at a restaurant.
As a general rule I TRY to drink a tea plain. But sometimes a bit of sweetness really adds to the flavor of a tea. I like German rock sugar, honey and regular sugar, but usually I use the white sugars for iced teas.
I’ve started to drink it as is. Prior to that I was more of a would you like a little tea with your sugar kinda gal. Then again I was also drinking Lipton at the time. So that probably solves that little mystery. ANYWAY sometimes I’ll add in some honey, agave, or rock sugar depending on my mood. I’ve even added plain soy Silk milk to the herbal teas for kicks.
I know that I should buy agave for those moments when I think: “Oooh this needs a little sweet!” but I tough it out. I might buy some stevia leaves and get my brother to show me how much he mixes with his tea leaves for those teas that need a little sweet.
For intense blacks and teas that have a “heat” of any kind, I use a splash of cream.
I try to stick to plain as often as I can.
It depends. I’ve slowly been experimenting with what I want to add to my tea. I’ve used milk sparingly, but I have used flavored creamer before in my teas. I’ve also used sugar and honey to sweeten. I mostly use honey in herbal teas with sugar in black teas and green teas.
Have you tried mixing tea with coffee? It’s surprisingly good combination. Mix black tea with coffee (we like a 2:1 ratio). Then add milk and sugar!
We wrote a blog post a while back about the unlikely duo of tea and coffee…Check it out if you’d like!
I know this puts me in on a lower level, but I can not drink tea without sweetener. The only tea I can drink without sweetener is the bitter old Lipton brewed or instant iced tea that I grew up with. Hot tea has to have some and good iced tea has to have some too. I’ve tried to cut it out and I make a frowny face and run for the what have you to add it as quick as I can. What kind I used depends on the tea. Black tea, usually german rock sugar, I try others but that is my favorite. I’ve found I really do like the palm sugar now that I found out here what to do with it: grate it. It is nice for oolong because it is a “light” sweetener without a strong flavor, it melts easily which makes good for green tea too. Oolongs, white and green tea don’t need as much for me, but they still need some sweetening, so palm sugar or agave nectar dissolve easily and don’t add their own flavoring so much. I know everyone always raves about honey in tea, I really just don’t care for it that much. It seems like I stir and stir and stir some more and still find it in a pool at the bottom of my cup.
It really depends on the tea – I’d say that 90% of the time I drink the tea plain (probably more like 99% if it’s iced).
That being said, there’s a couple of teas that I have that I feel are really delicious with added dash of cream (not a fan of milk in my tea, but the slightest dash of cream I do like) and/or cane sugar – especially if it’s a rainy day where all you want is a cup of tea and some comfort food (I usually note in my reviews if I think it would be good with sweeteners/cream, so you can see which ones I mean). I especially find that a plain rooibos is really good cream & sugar, though I do drink it plain most of the time.
Depends on the tea and my mood. I may add honey to my green tea, sugar and milk to my black tea…or just plain. I add stevia or splenda to my iced tea.
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