Beware of the Green Tea...

I was just about to make a cup of tea with some green tea that was in the staff room (its there for everyone), and happened to look at the back of the package while the water was heating...and here's the kicker......

60 CALS!!! For a cup of TEA!!!!!! WTH!?!? Are we thinking of the same kind of tea here? You know, leaves and water? What did they put in it? Needless to say, I nearly died...and had different tea. But I am wondering what they did to it to make it 60 cals per cup...I mean really, I thought tea basically had no calories? Am I assuming wrong here? Does your green tea have no calories?

I like my Green Tea cold. I buy Crystal Light's brand. Zero Calories.

The only green tea I've seen with calories of 50-80 for every 8 oz is the bottled kind.  They add sugar to the bottled types, I do know that.  There may be other flavorings they add.  But a tea packet?  No, I don't think those could have 60 calories even if they soaked the tea in Olive Oil. 

Hmm, I'll be waiting to hear what others have to say. 

edit: Green tea powder isn't "real" green tea.  And yes, that could easily have more calories.  I have some gross Lipton tea mix my Mom bought for me, and it's something like 100 cals a cup.  But it tastes nasty.  Since its summer, I get the flavored green tea and brew it with half the hot water and just add ice... Mmmm so sweet, so good, and so good for you.  No sugar, no sweetener, no calories, no worries!  Try it.  I like Bigelow and Celestial Seasonings, Stash is okay as is Tazo.

No, it is just tea in a bag. It seems to be imported as it has chinese  writing on it. Well, I couldn't believe this, I thought maybe I read wrong and they meant an entire cup of leaves or something, but NO! It says one serving = 2 g (which is about one tea bag I would think), and one serving = 60 cals. INSANE! And all it says on the ingredients is green tea. I'm thinking either they are lying about the ingredients, or the cals amount is a typo or a mistake....

Definitely sounds wrong. That sounds more like the amount of caffeine that may be in it, not calories. I have Bigelow green tea bags and it has zero calories.

Hmm, if it's chinese it's the real stuff.  Maybe its a typo... do you read Chinese?  Perhaps the people who printed it don't know English?  Haha.  I'm not sure but it can't be right.  Interesting, though.  I'll have to watch out too, just in case!

Maybe if you ate the tea bag...

ok... you know how there are Calories and Kilocalories and we all say calories but what we really mean is kilocalories? Because man, kilocalories is just too much of a mouthful...

So maybe they've used calories in the science-y chemical sense of the word, not the American customary sense of the word...

which would mean it would have 6 kcal or cals as we like to say.

english isn't their first language after all...

and neither is american ;D

listen, if you're drinking green tea for the anti-oxidants, you MUST brew real, loose tea leaves.  if it's from a mix or bottled, you might as well drink water.

Wow, that's ... SHOCKING!
I had Lipton Green Tea (I think it's 16 oz bottle) and the label says ZERO calorie!

I have a body dislike for soy and found that lots of the "herbal" teas have soy in them as well.  But my green tea has 0 calories so check the brands I guess before you drink your daily allowances of calories LOL.

What does the ingredients list say?  if it contains only tea leaves, then it's 0 calories

Green Tea

The ingredients are not very helpful: all it says is green tea. It is not a mix, or from a bottle or anything, it is just tea bags (yes, with real leaves inside them), from China. There is english on the box in addition to the chinese. I think you guys may be right that they have misinterpreted what a calorie is or have based it on the calories content of the actual leaves themselves (lol at the eating of the teabag...how much fibre do you think that has lol...) or else they meant calorie not kilocalorie (is that how it works?). Still; 6 cals for leaves and water even seems a bit much to me...but slightly more reasonable I guess...

I just checked the various boxes of tea in my cupboard and while some have calories and other's do not, none of them had a higher calorie content than 10 or 15 calories per 8oz serving. Either the box of tea you picked up has a typo or there's something not being mentioned in the ingredient list, lol. If I were you, I'd buy myself a brand of tea that I know something about and keep the box stored in my desk or maybe carry around one or two in my bag. Most teas are wrapped in individual wrappers, and it saves a lot of time and worry if you know exactly what you're drinking at any point in time.

:-)

i hate to break it to you (again), but if it's in teabags, you're not getting the benefits.  you're getting a nice cup of tea, but you're not getting the anti-oxidants.

first, the best quality teas will never end up in that form.  you're getting the dregs.

second, green teas are not particularly concentrated.  a tablespoon of loose tea leaves, once infused, expands several times in volume, and the research shows that a tablespoon of tea leaves in a cup of hot water (not boiling, just hot) is optimum.  you'll never get that much tea in a teabag.

why is it such a chore to toss some leaves in a cup?

maybe they mean if you eat the bag and all or something LOL I have never heard of just tea haveing more than a couple calories, after all the green tea with honey (pre botteled) that I have only has 90 cals per serving and that is sweetened. Its probably a typo maybe it should read 6 or something.

pgeorgian: Don't worry, I also have some loose green tea leaves from Japan that I drink if I feel like drinking antioxidants. I just like to drink green tea in general because I like the taste. I drink tea all the time, not just for its antioxidant powers

I also have loose tea leaves for some occasions and tea bags for others (work or travel for example). Drinking tea isn't all about the benefits, I agree sometimes it's just about comfort, warmth and/or taste. And sometimes the tea bags are just easier!

yeah, i get it.  it's yummy.  but there's a reason there aren't threads all over these boards about orange pekoe, you know?

I really like oolong tea not only delicious but it boosts metabolism and promotes weightloss