Help! Hot Drinks!

(Kate) #1

Morning all. I am starting to hit a wall - am 4 weeks in ! and my biggest issue is hot drinks. I don’t drink coffee (bleurgh!) and am a Brit so drink hot tea with milk - a LOT of milk! so I was using around 10g of carb just on my tea. I am down to just 2 cups a day with a whole milk/ cream mix but what other suggestions for hot drinks do you have. I love jasmine and green tea when I am at Thai, Chinese or Japanese restaurants but at home when i make it they taste like grassy water. Hadn’t realised a, how much teas I drank in a day and b, how much of a comfort a hot drink is! I am not someone who likes to eat a snack with my tea so that’s not what I am missing. Fruit teas all taste fake and watery - Please help!

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #2

I like drinking broth, it provides some salt and is a nice filling warm drink.

If you switch to heavy cream you may get more out of it because it has fewer carbs and you can use less to lighten your tea. I use it in tea and it’s delish.

(Retta Stephenson) #3

I wanted to cut down on the carbs from HWC (heavy whipping cream) in my tea also. I found by using thick rich heavy whipping cream, I only needed 1 tablespoon for a very creamy effect. That is only .4 grams carbs per tablespoon.

Some of the lighter teas I like only need about half that much cream. I don’t know what it’s called where you are, but here in Oregon, USA, its heavy whipping cream. Perhaps yours is Double Cream??

(Lisa) #4

I agree with other about the HWC as a good alternative to half and half, I switched and while it took a few days to adjust it works just fine.

As to the teas you love in restaurants tasting different at home, check out a few online resources for the proper method of brewing different teas. Different types of teas need different brewing temps to achieve the best flavor and is a art form in many different countries.

Keep up the good work, you’ll find a way that works for you to continue enjoying your tea! Cheers,

http://www.thechineseteashop.com/gong-fu-cha.html

(Full Metal KETO AF) #5

Some teas are better with lemon

#6

Ha ha, same problem here but with cappacino’s from the cafe at work.

I knew full well they put milk in it, but I thought it was a little bit at the top. Wrong. It’s about three quarters of the mug. Gulp. Somehow I still went into ketosis and lost a lot of weight but I must’ve been pushing my luck. Talk about hidden carbs (yeah, hidden in plain site).

Are you able to train yourself to have black tea? Or tea with cream instead of milk. Or simply a lot less milk or something? (At home I have coffee with cream, I much prefer cream now).

I reckon retraining over those fruity herbal chemical bags.

(Kate) #7

nope! Just nope. Nope. thanks for trying to help but nope

(Ellen) #8

Hi Kate,

Fellow Brit here (although possibly a fake one as I don’t like normal tea or coffee), I use stock cubes, in fact I’m actually at my desk drinking a mug of OXO right now!

(Doug) #9

Definitely agree with using cream instead of milk. Loved tea all my life - after church on Sundays there was a ‘social hour’ with food, coffee and tea - huge urns of tea, ours for the taking, just hold a cup under the spigot and turn that baby on.

A ten year old, 5 or 6 cups of tea with a lot of white, granulated sugar in it - I was an energetic kid sometimes. :smile:

Coffee - decided to cut out sugar and creamer in the 1990s, black ever since. Yet tea, though - still had to have some sweetener, even if artificial, until just recently; at age 59 I’ve finally become okay with tea and nothing else in it.

#10

Also a Brit albeit trapped in the land of Trump. I don’t drink tea as much now (used to be at least ten cups a day back in the UK), more coffee really, but I do like to treat myself to a good cuppa a few times a week, usually Yorkshire Gold. When I make it I just pour in a bit of heavy cream, you really don’t need anywhere near as much as you do with milk to get the same colour and taste. It does taste a bit different than milk but I quickly got used to it (I think of it as a “rich” tea that you might find in the kind of place that does scones with cream, etc). Over in the UK you could try single cream and double cream and see which fares better – we don’t have them here, although I did see the most expensive clotted cream in my entire life the other day in an upmarket grocery.

Are you making it fresh or using tea bags? Tea bags are similar for me and I never got it right, but when I make it fresh it’s much better.

(Doug) #11

Hell yes! :slightly_smiling_face::sunglasses:

(Kate) #12

oh wow I haven’t had a hot oxo for decades - great idea

(Kate) #13

everytime I visit bessie mate in Florida I take a whole suitcase full of coscto catering bags of Yorkshire gold - I am a Twinnings everyday kind of girl and a cup of Fortnum and Mason Breakfast blend on Sundays

(Kate) #14

I gave up sugar in my tea for Lent aged 10 never looked back. Only time I have kept up Lent! My Dad gave my DD tea at around 6 months old and I have just had to ban him putting sugar in for her! She is 10 and Hyperglycemic so we have very different eating needs!

(Karyn) #15

I often just sip on a cup of hot water instead of tea or coffee. I prefer it to cold water most of the time.

(Laurie) #16

If you don’t want to use heavy whipping cream for some reason, try almond milk in your tea. Brands vary greatly in ingredients, carb content, and taste. I like Almond Breeze Unsweetened; make sure you buy the one with the bright pink “Unsweetened” label at the top.

https://www.bluediamondalmonds.co.uk/products/almond-breeze-unsweetened/

I’m not fond of most fruity teas either–or clear herbal teas in general. I’ll enjoy them at someone else’s house but not as an everyday beverage. However, Stash Licorice Spice is refreshing (and not fruity) and might be worth a try.

Some herbal tea brands don’t taste like anything, so you might have been buying the wrong brand of fruit tea. Stash and Celestial Seasonings herbal teas are usually pretty tasty.

Brands of green and jasmine tea also vary, but I’m no expert. If you enjoy green tea in a restaurant, you could ask the owner or server what brand they use.

#17

If you have a Whittards of Chelsea near you then do go in and get some of their Christmas tea (it changes it’s name during the year to Spice Imperial).

I had the same problem. As you to start with re hot drinks (and for me I DETEST drinking cold drinks so this was a big issue for me) but the Christmas tea was the first tea I was able to drink black and they have some other amazing ones in their range.

Normal everyday black tea or decaff coffee I now take with either double cream or almond/coconut milk.
Otherwise as above bone broth, oxo cube or bovril, Aldi or Lidl’s liquorice and peppermint infusion is good too, has more flavour and body to it than other herbal/fruit teas, or for me just hot water with lemon is great on a hot day when in need of a refresh.

Also have a look at crio bru as an alternative to hot choc, especially the orange spiced one, make in a cafetiere and add a splash of double cream and it is delicious (expensive for the pack but if you compare it to a trip to starbucks it is more appealing).

Good luck finding what works for you.

(Charlie Kathopoulis) #18

See if you can find this stuff. I enjoy it and there’s bugger all carbs per serve.

https://www.milkadamia.com.au/unsweetened-macadamia-milk