Diet tea?

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  • My mum bought me a health magazine today (thanks for the hint, mum *cough*) and there was a free sample of Cho Yung weight loss tea. I tried it, and to be frank it smelled and tasted like cat urine, but I seem to be not as snack happy a couple of hours after drinking it. This is probably just in my mind, or a coincidence, but it had me thinking about this stuff and I immediately thought to come and ask you lovely creatures. Any thoughts or experiences?
  • I have never tried any special "diet tea", but I am a big tea drinker. I haven't noticed any particular lessening of hunger, other than what you might normally get after drinking a hot liquid. That said, when snack urges come, drinking hot tea does help me with them.

    I drink green tea, black tea (sometimes), herbal teas, etc... all have the same effect for me. So my advice is to just find a nice tasty tea you like without sweetener added and use that.

    Or if you can't find a tea you like, consider making up a nice brothy soup you can easily heat up.

    I love Upton loose leaf teas... and am enjoying a cup of organice Ku-Ki Cha Kamakura (Japanese green twig tea) that hubby gave me for Xmas right now.
  • I have tried (cold) diet tea from the store. I don't know if you're looking for a diet tea in general or a specific one. I know of two different ones.

    1. Arizona Diet Peach Tea
    2. Community Diet Tea

    both are sweetened with Splenda and are sold by the gallon or by individual bottles/cans.

    Hope I helped :/
  • Herbal diet teas are frequently fortified with extra caffeine or other stimulants. Given that they also tend to taste/smell like cat urine or worse, you might prefer just drinking regular tea (not herbal, just ordinary ol' Camellia sinensis leaves).

    I'm wary of diet teas. Back in the day, they often contained ma huang, also known as ephedra, an herb that did help with weight loss...but also "helped" with life loss in a few cases and is no longer legal to sell as a supplement (at least in the US; not sure of its status in the UK). Now that ephedra is no longer saleable, some ephedra-free supplements like bitter orange have a similar effect, but manage to skirt the law because the active compounds are from a different plant.

    Try regular tea for a bit and see if the "snackless" effect works for you then. It's bound to taste better, it still has some caffeine, it'll be cheaper, and it won't smell a thing like cat pee.
  • Haha, thanks for the advice girls! I'll stick to normal tea I think! I looked up the tea I had a sample of, and it's £40 for thirty bags, and it recommended two cups a day! I don't think sooooo!

    And yeah, I saw a tv show about ephedra, it's scary that women were still so desperate to lose weight they were taking it while knowing the risks!
  • Quote: Haha, thanks for the advice girls! I'll stick to normal tea I think! I looked up the tea I had a sample of, and it's £40 for thirty bags, and it recommended two cups a day! I don't think sooooo
    Totally believe that pricing. Sad, but it seems like if you put the word "diet" on a product, price goes up.

    You can get great quality organic loose leaf teas for much less than that though! Further, you can usually get two good steepings out of each serving, which stretches things further. Herbal teas don't always do well with a second steeping, but some do fine. Just experiment with whatever you get.

    The great thing about tea is that there is so much variety!
  • One of the great things about me starting this journey is that I have found some really great teas! I really like the herbals, and have even had some green teas. I like the loose leaf, but that is generally more expensive, and not in my budget yet.
    My latest finds include a mango green tea made (or packaged by) Disneyland... part of the mad hatter sampler pack. I also like Trader Joe's Ginger Pear Tea. It was 2.99 for 20 bags.
    I have heard about dieters tea (teavana.com bosts some) but I am not sure how much better they work than regular tea.
  • Teavana has some tasty teas, but their prices are ginormous compared to just about anywhere else. I only go there to get an idea of what's on the market, not to buy; it's too easy to find similar teas for less elsewhere. Their teas are definitely delicious if you have the cash to spend, though.

    This post has made me crave some of my Tazo rooibos decaf chai.
  • Quote: Teavana has some tasty teas, but their prices are ginormous compared to just about anywhere else. I only go there to get an idea of what's on the market, not to buy; it's too easy to find similar teas for less elsewhere. Their teas are definitely delicious if you have the cash to spend, though.

    This post has made me crave some of my Tazo rooibos decaf chai.
    I LOVE the Rooibos teas! (Even though my sister says they smell like cigars)

    Teavana IS high! Any ideas to find loose leaf, decent quality at a decent price?
  • Teas are quite common here in Asia so I've drank a lot in various forms. I'm not a tea expert though.

    For me, there are 2 kinds of teas... the yummy fruit and flower teas that a lot of people love; and the "Camellia Sinensis" tea (green/oolong/black/white) that tastes nasty lol...

    When people talk about healthy/diet/weight loss tea, I assume they mean the nasty variety lol. Green/oolong (not sure about black) teas aid in weight loss by helping burn fats. Also, it acts as a natural laxative and supposedly, skin whitener lol. I don't know the exact science but I think it shouldn't affect a person's appetite unless they have added some ingredient that suppresses hunger (sibutramin or something?). So in this case, I'm guessing the Cho Yung tea isn't all-natural/organic...

    Anyway, please correct me if any of my info is wrong. I'm curious about teas, too... I'm especially surprised when people say they love the taste of tea because in my head they mean green/oolong/black tea and I can't imagine that stuff tasting good. Even the mildest ones tastes a bit bitter... So they must mean jasmine, chamomile, ginger, etc. tea - do any of these tea help in weight loss? Because I'm going to want to try them... the oolong tea I am drinking now tastes awful but it has proven itself.

    Just to share... I once tried this sweet, cold tea that smells like perfume. Best tasting tea I've had so far. Turns out its made of flower petals and the sweet taste/smell only comes out when it is boiled then chilled. Its only 'health' benefit is to cool the body down. lol. How I wish it could burn fats instead... =\
  • My husband gets a lot of loose teas via Igourmet.com, which has a nice selection and delivers promptly. I'm really stuck on the Tazo version of decaf chai, so I haven't sampled as many as he has. Even so, we're both very into teas and have read up on 'em.

    A lot of the fruit-and-flower teas, surprisingly, are just Camellia sinensis--with added flavorings. That applies to jasmine tea, Earl Grey, most citrus teas, peach, lemon, cinnamon, orange--the majority are tea with other tasty things mixed in. It's usually flavored black tea, but some flavors are mixed with green or white tea.

    Black, green, white, and oolong teas are all the same species of plant (C. sinensis) that undergoes different types of processing to become tea. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think that white tea is steamed, green tea dried, oolong tea partially fermented, and black tea fully fermented. It's the most common type; standard iced teas, Lipton/Luzianne/Bigelow teas, and breakfast teas are all black teas.

    Herbal teas, on the other hand, are technically "tisanes," not teas (though you'll never see that written on the box). It gets confusing, because a lot of stuff that looks like herbal tea--I'm looking at another page featuring Teavana's "shape up tea blend," for instance--contains black tea along with the herbs/spices. I guess the only way to avoid black/green/white tea in herbal teas is to buy from somewhere that separates teas by type.

    Chamomile tea is almost always just an herbal tea; maybe it tastes gross with black/green tea, maybe it just seems silly to combine something to calm you down with something containing caffeine. I dunno. Rooibos is another popular base for herbal teas; it has a really rich, round flavor that goes well with black tea or with fruits, herbs, or spices.

    I would love to try that sweet, cold perfume tea you're describing! It sounds like a little cup of fragrant heaven.
  • Ooh, perhaps controversially, I love Camellia Sinensis teas like black and white teas, but the fruity ones always taste too tangy for me! I'm a huge drinker of Earl Grey tea and sometimes I have white tea or lemon tea. Fantastic. If I have regular black tea I have it with soy milk and sucrose sweetener. Yummy!

    I think I should drink more white tea. The health benefits are supposed to be HUGE.
  • I love all sorts of tea, doesn't matter. If tea tastes bitter, it may be because it was brewed too long. Do they help with weight loss? Well there was a study that said if you drank a cup of green tea every day for a year, it could help you lose up to 8 lbs. Could be that tea helps fill you up or that the extra caffeine gives a slight boost or who knows.
  • I LOVE Arizona Diet Green Tea. Zero Calories, and it tastes DELICIOUS! I don't normally drink more than two glasses at a time, because sometimes it has a weird aftertaste after drinking too much at once. But other than that, I have nothing but compliments for it. Whenever I see it on the shelf I buy as many as I can. They store in the pantry for quite some time.

    DELICIOUS! =]
  • I love the green/oolong/black/white teas, just as they are. In fact, for the most part, I prefer them to flavored teas! I don't use any sweetener either.

    Things that can make green teas bitter are steeping too long and using water that is too high temperature. For most green teas, water should not be above 180F. That's why I love that Upton always included brewing directions on their loose leaf teas.

    I do admit that early on in my green tea drinking days, I encountered a cheap brand called Salada in my local supermarket. That stuff WAS nasty. I made myself finish it, but then moved on to Stash teas (nice) and now looseleaf, usually from Upton Tea. (nicer)