4 Alternative Ways to Sweeten Your Tea

Mary Poppins sung it best: A spoonful of sugar DOES help the medicine go down.

But, at Leaf Logic tea, we think dousing table sugar into tea designed to make you well feels a bit counter intuitive. In fact, that's the whole reason we got into the tea-making business in the first place (read our story here).

But, without a little sweetener, tea can taste like listless water. So, how do we brighten up the flavor without reversing the wellness effects with too much sugar?

We've asked the team and here are our four favorite, healthy ways to sweeten our tea!

1. Raw Honey - It may be our love of bees talking (our #leaflogicfarm bees will be on the blog soon!), but we find raw honey to be superior to all other sweeteners. Raw honey offers subtle sweetness backed by natural antioxidants, enzymes and minerals that add an additional wellness impact to our herbal and medicinal tea blends.

2. Maple Syrup -  Maple Sugar is one of our go-to choices not not just because it adds sweetness, but because it adds flavor and depth. It is a great addition to a rich Kansas Sunset Chai latte!

3. Stevia Leaf - A pinch of dried green stevia leaf is a low calorie, natural sweetener. We love it so much, we've included it in several of our blends for a natural sweetness straight out of the tea pot. Want to give it a shot? Stevia is in our Berry Bliss, Subtle Citrus Fusion, and Mint Meadow blends!

4. . Date Sugar or Date Syrup - We LOVE Date Lady organic date syrups. We're all about real food around here and her syrups are just that - natural sweetening from California dates. Check her out!

Trying to lower your sugar intake?

Recent studies show that taking a sip of your tea or coffee (gasp) BEFORE sweetening it makes it less likely you'll OVER sweeten it. Once you've taken that initial sugarless sip, your taste buds will be keenly aware to the sweet change. Simply put incrementally less sweetener in until at your desired level of intake.

Resources Page

This serves as a comprehensive list of all the resources referenced throughout the blog. I will be growing this list as time goes by, but wanted to have one location to reference for all the books, blogs, magazines, articles, websites, speeches, etc etc. I never limit my research to one platform because if someone is going to talk about herbs, I am going to listen and double check everything I hear or read! Any recommendations are always welcome! I love to research and learn more!

Please note that all of these references are what I personally use and are not any paid endorsements.

Some of these books are not in print anymore and it took me years to track down a copy for myself constantly calling or searching used book stores or regularly checking Amazon. So it is with great love that I want to share excerpts of wisdom from these great writings!

1. Grieve, M., Mrs. A Modern Herbal. Vol. 1. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1971. Print.

2. Grieve, M., Mrs. A Modern Herbal. Vol. 2. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1971. Print.

3. Kloss, Jethro. Back to Eden: A Human Interest Story of Health and Restoration to Be Found in Herb, Root, and Bark. Loma Linda, CA: Back to Eden Pub., 1994. Print.

4. Gladstar, Rosemary. Herbal Remedies for Children's Health. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 1999. Print.

5. Gladstar, Rosemary. Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2008. Print.

6. Weed, Susan S. Herbal for the Childbearing Years. Woodstock, NY: Ash Tree Publishing, 1986. Print.

7. Keith, Velma J and Gordon, Monteen. The How to Herb Book. Pleasant Grove, UT: Mayfield Publications, 1994. Print.

8. Gladstar, Rosemary. Medicinal Herbs, A Beginners Guide. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2012. Print.

9. Carpenter, Jeff and Carpenter, Melanie: The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer, The Ultimate Guide to Producing Quality Herbs on a Market Scale. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015. Print.