- Try bottled as a portable beverage choice. Many bottled or canned ice tea drinks as much added sugars as a regular soda; read the label to check calories. Look for those flavored with noncaloric sweeteners.
- Watching calories? Enjoy tea without added sugar or honey. For a touch of flavor in unsweetened tea, just add a slice of lemon or lime, fresh ginger or fresh mint leaves.
- Add citrus juice for flavor and smart nutrition! Tea’s flavonoids partly inhibit the absorption of nonheme iron (iron from legume, grain products, and eggs). A squeeze of vitamin C rich lemon, orange, or lemon juice in tea can counteract some of the action.
- For more calcium, enjoy “milk tea”: hot or cold tea added to milk. Some believe that adding milk to tea lowers tea’s antioxidant power. However, no scientific evidence proves that milk binds to and inactivates polyphenols. If enjoy milk in tea certainly add some!
- Experiment with culinary uses of dried tea leaves: as a flavor rub for a roast, for tea marinated meat, or in homemade sorbet.
- Use tea – perhaps a flavored variety – in place of water in dough or batter for breads, cookies, cakes, and brownies.
