Foods

i absolutely NEED to have coffee or tea in the morning and with my daily calories being at 1250, i dont want to waste 200 calories on some honey or creamer.

in coffee i can drink it with a flavored creamer and/or splenda for very few calories but for the tea i have yet to find a solution.

i cant drink tea black usually so i need some cream and i have been using half and half which isnt so bad but once i finish it i am going to switch to fat free (unless someone has a better idea!) but the honey is what kills me! i have a sweet tooth so i end up using 2-3 tbs of honey for my 16oz mug and that is between 64 and 96 calories! is there a such thing as a low calorie honey i could get?? i have tried it with splenda instead and it just tastes gross!

This is what I do becaue I do love honey, but it takes a lot for it to be sweet.  I found that raw wild flower honey (not the crap you find ina squeeze bear) has a really great flavor and sweetness. I have found it at the grocery store and at farmers markets.  While its not low calorie you can use less.

I also wouldn't use such a large cup for tea. Maybe use a small coffee mug and 3 teaspoons of wild flower honey.

Also you might want to try out maple Syrup. One of my friends uses it for tea. I don't really like it but she does.

No such thing as low calorie honey. No such thing as low cal sugar either.

Have you thought about trying to reduce the amount slowly, or eliminate it for a while, so your tongue gets used to a little less sweetness? I cut sweets out of my diet for a while and I am amazed at how overly sweet things taste now, so I guess my tongue got more sensitive to the sweet taste during the time I was without. There are some things I can't even eat now because they taste too sweet.

Three tablespoons of honey is an awful lot. You might as well not be drinking 'tea' at all, because you're entirely covering up the flavour. The teabag is only an excuse to get your sugar... (at least that's what my mother told me when I started drinking tea as a teenager and loaded it up with milk and sugar. She made me wean myself off the sugar entirely, and after a few months I couldn't stand it sweet! Then I discovered herbal and flavoured teas, which are only nice if you have them plain, and I didn't even need milk any more.)

Have you ever tried herbal teas instead of the regular kind? Fruit tea? Or Earl Grey? That has a much gentler flavour than regular 'black' tea and it's easier to drink. I can't stand 'ordinary' tea - it's far too bitter - but I love Earl Grey or Orange Pekoe because they both have extra (calorie-free) flavours added to them.

 

Original Post by kajikit:

Three tablespoons of honey is an awful lot. You might as well not be drinking 'tea' at all, because you're entirely covering up the flavour. The teabag is only an excuse to get your sugar... (at least that's what my mother told me when I started drinking tea as a teenager and loaded it up with milk and sugar. She made me wean myself off the sugar entirely, and after a few months I couldn't stand it sweet! Then I discovered herbal and flavoured teas, which are only nice if you have them plain, and I didn't even need milk any more.)

Have you ever tried herbal teas instead of the regular kind? Fruit tea? Or Earl Grey? That has a much gentler flavour than regular 'black' tea and it's easier to drink. I can't stand 'ordinary' tea - it's far too bitter - but I love Earl Grey or Orange Pekoe because they both have extra (calorie-free) flavours added to them.

i drink all different kinds of tea at night i drink chamomile and during the day usually i like fruit and almond or irish breakfast.  i also have been drinking out of a large mug.  a typical tea cup size i would only use maybe a tablespoon of honey, if that.  i just like to drink a lot of it and its easier to make one big cup instead of 3 small ones.  i do enjoy the taste of tea and i'm not drowning it out because i want milk and sugar, if i did i would just have a bowl of sugary cereal.  i just like tea and honey and i wanted a way to have it but with not so many calories.  thanks for the input tho.

Have you tried Splenda? I do drink my coffe black, but I use it as a sweetener. It doesn't bother me in the least and helps keep calories under control. Of course don't have a cup every day...

Use non-fat creamer or skim milk, or maybe light vanilla soy milk -- the last one might be good for you since it'll also add sweetness...

I'd say you're probably better off trying to wean yourself off of honey.  When I first started drinking tea and coffee I had to use TONS of sugar and creamer, and then I gradually lessened the amounts of both, and now I can't stand sugar in my tea, and I use skim milk and like 3 sugars (~45 calories) for my coffee.

 

Maybe you can opt for a sugar free pancake syrup...?

I don't know how that will taste, but I ALWAYS put sugar free pancake syrup on my cottage cheese. Personally, I think it's a great substitute for honey or maple syrup. It is only about 30 calories for 1/3 of a cup

IMO, don't substitute Splenda!  Its a chemical that eats away at the steel vats where its manufactured!  I wouldn't put that in my body for anything!!  Its evil!

Having said that, I agree w/previous posters:  its would be a good idea for you to gradually reduce the amount of honey you're using.  Agave Nectar has slightly fewer calories and has a slightly different (but sweet!) flavor, which might be a good option for you to try (available at healthfood stores).

Good luck!

I take it from the way you emphasized "NEED" that you're looking for a shot of caffeine in the morning. If you want something different than herbal tea (which is generally caffeine-free), but without the bitterness of black tea, you might like mate (pronounced mah-tay, I think). It is caffeinated, and comes in tea-bags, but I find its taste less bitter than black or green tea even without sweetener, especially if you get something like a mate chai.  On the other hand, if you're not looking for the caffeine, I like red tea, which has a natural slightly sweet taste.  Both of these are available in regular grocery stores (at least here in Houston). You might feel able to get away with less honey with these, or even wean yourself off altogether like I have done. Growing up (in Britain), tea was always black, and served with milk and sugar :)

A good alternative is stevia.  It's herbal ( a leaf) and it's calorie-free.  It's big in Japan (they use it the way we use corn syrup in the US.)  It's sweeter than sugar, but doesn't taste like sugar.  Give your taste buds a couple of weeks to adjust.  It hasn't really been tested here, so it's marketed as a supplement, not as a food.  You can buy it in powdered/crystallized form loose or in packets.  If you have a local farmer's market you may be able to find it there, dried, in leaf form.  If you buy it this way, just stick it in a tea ball in your cup for a few minutes while your tea steeps. 

I found sugar free "Honey" once. I don't remember where, though. I'll think about it.

My health food store sells Stevia.  Its right next to the agave nectar (which I just learned is 1.5x sweeter than regular white sugar...)