Seattle Forrest

I love iced tea, but then I love cold, iced drinks in general. Water with lots of ice is much yummier than a can of soda. ( Of course, I don't have much of a sweet tooth... ) Whenever I'm at a restaurant, I tend to order iced tea.

For long bike (or kayak) trips, I'll tend to brew some tea, and fill one of my water bottles with this and some sliced lemon. After 30 miles, this feels like a small luxury. I'll always bring a second bottle of plain water, though, and drink from both.

The reason I'm asking in this forum ... is that a lot of Clydes and Athenas get "bored" with flavorless water. We seem to crave taste. And we know we shouldn't be drinking our calories. But unless you're buying bottled tea with corn syrup in it, or adding sugar, there are no calories in a cup of tea. And the apple and cinnamon flavor is delicious.

But be warned that drinking tea makes you old.

EKW in DC

Guess I'm getting older then. In an effort to reduce diet soda consumption and save $, I've started brewing iced tea a lot more often lately. Sometimes I'm brewing up 2 qts a day. I make mine w/ Splenda (purchased in bulk at Costco) for sweetness.

I do really like it. Recently, at a restaurant even, I opted for iced tea over diet soda. (My wife was shocked! I got unsweetened and added artificial sweetener.) My only misgiving is I have to plan ahead to make sure I have some ready (or wait the 30 minutes to heat up water, let the tea steep, and add ice to make it). Not quite as convenient as a bottle of Diet Pepsi waiting to be popped open or a tub of Crystal Light or sugar-free Kool-Aid, etc., but a lot cheaper and better for me, I imagine.

wxduff

I drink tea now and then, more herbal then actual, and more green then black. I usually drink it when I need a break from water. But for the most part water does it for me. I drink way more then my daily need of water every day. My co-workers at my old job were always "Bathroom again?". I simply respond to them "I wont get kidney stones, headaches, or feel tired as easy as you guys do." One of my coworkers got a kidney stone maybe a year after I started drinking all this water, and if anyone ever went "bathroom again?", he would tell them about what passing a kidney stone felt like. Started seeing more water bottles at work after that.



But yes, I like tea. I also like coffee. But I mostly drink water.

cyclokitty 

I drink (regular, plain, old, delicious, don't touch it unless you have a death wish, orange pekoe, PG Tips, builders) tea. With sugar. I like iced tea but rarely make it. It's a great idea and I'll think I'll make a batch this weekend.

I love iced coffee even more.

When I need a boost on a long ride I will happily succumb to an ice, cold can of Coke. Much tastier than Gatorade (yech).

DieselDan

There are some things you must drink in order to live in the South. Tea is one of them.

nymtber

Ice tea is very refreshing, but its a mild diuretic, so I would be careful drinking too much of it during exercise, though a glass or bottle likely wont harm ya much I make "sun tea" when you put it in the sun all day instead of boiling water, works great and is super tasty No sugar or lemon here, just straight up ice tea. I prefer Lipton or Salada tea bags for mine. Salada gets the nod these days as the bags are not individually wrapped in paper, reducing waste

It is kind of a summer drink around here, winter I would rather just have hot tea!

LongT

I drink iced tea also, all year. Not on rides but in the morning or when I go out to eat, any meal. I have one of those ice tea makers. Just like a coffee maker. Fill up the maker with water. Fill the pitcher with ice. Put the tea in the filter (I use 1/2 regular and 1/2 green). About 10 min later iced tea. No sugar but sometimes lemon.

Bill

Neil_B

Clyde and Athena: Do you drink tea?

Of course. And not just when riding. When I'm at work I drink tea, and even when I'm hustling chess:

CACycling

All day. Started drinking iced tea to replace sodas (I used sugar in it back then) and it's now what I drink most of the time. I drink water and Gatorade on rides but the rest of the time it is unsweetened iced tea (decaf when I can get it). Easily a gallon a day year round.

tortugaflats

as a kid soda was a luxury. mom always made tea. guess it was cheaper than buying soda. it stuck. still drink it during the summer. never thought of drinking it on a ride. always tastes good ice cold when it is hot outside working in the yard.

chasm54

Tea is, of course, the only beverage for civilised people. But iced tea? I feel faint.

Neil_B

It's a North American twist on the fine English tradition. It was invented in Boston when a bunch of colonials tossed it into the harbour, err, harbor.

Seriously, at least one website I've found traces iced tea back to the early 19th century in both the US and the UK. Green tea was often an ingredient in chilled punches. I found this set of instructions for making a tea punch, from an 1839 book:

Tea Punch - Make a pint and a half of very strong tea in the usual manner; strain it, and pour it boiling on one pound and a quarter of loaf sugar. Add half a pint of rich sweet cream, and then stir in gradually a bottle of claret or of champaign (sic). You may heat it to the boiling point, and serve it so, or you may send it round entirely cold, in glass cups.

wxduff

What about espresso? When I was in Italy every cafe was filled with businessmen and women watch the news or football before a day at the office. What about wine? Tell someone from Champagne Area France or Nappa Valley that tea is the most civilized drink and they will laugh at you. And if you tell a Bavarian that beer is uncivilized, he/she would be appalled.

Let's just say "To each their own" before we go and make wild assumptions about what drink is most civilized.

I propose plain water is.

Neil_B

Mark Twain once said that the books of the great authors are like wine, and his books are like water. "Everyone drinks water." :-)

tuna

My brother and I grew up drinking sun-brewed iced tea. My parents felt that sun brewed tea was cheaper and healthier than soda or punch. To this day I sun-brew iced tea, using decaf Lipton tea bags (don't need the caffeine for my hypertension and I can't taste the difference).

Neil_B

https://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/suntea.asp

mccornwall

Iced tea with NO sweetener. I make it a pitcher at a time...half caffeinated and half de-caffeinated...so it's half-caf.

Seattle Forrest

Well, sir ... you have to understand, we did that to bring tea to a new generation of hipsters, to make it fresh and relevant for these kids today, innit?

By the way, has anybody noticed that drinking tea leads to doing crossword puzzles and yelling at kids to stay off your lawn? Because this girl told me I'm "an old man drinking tea."

chasm54

I don't have a lawn, but if I had one I'd undoubtedly be yelling at kids to stay off it. And the correlation between tea-drinking and crossword-solving is 100%, in my experience.

socalrider

Love Iced Tea.. Passion or Tazo Green Tea is on top of my list.. Try one of these if you want it fast.. Best 20.00 I've spent..

https://www.target.com/Sunbeam-Iced-T..._qi_detaillink

Neil_B

A side effect of tea..... is that too much means you can't sleep. I know this to be true, having spent a sleepless night from drinking 64 ounces of the stuff after my ride Saturday. :-(

wxduff

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO! I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT TEA. ARE YOU HAPPY???

Lol. But seriously, I got some.

Lipton now sells real tea. I'm currently enjoying: https://www.liptont.com/our_products/...megranate.aspx

callmeclemens

I love ice tea, drink it pretty frequently, havent ever taken it on a ride though.
I don't like to take soda on rides ever, drinking regular soda makes my teeth feel caked in sugar, and after taking a nutritian course in college I learned that any artificial sweetener including Splenda, equal, sweet and low,and HFCS are all the devil so I try not to drink diet sodas.

I usually take a bottle of water, and for long rides an additional bottle of vitamin water. After comparing I came to learn that Vitamin water is far better for you then gatorade, more vitamins and minerals and less sugar.

tuna

Darn! I didn't think about that... oh well... good to know. Thanks! -- Tuna

Dr. Banzai

3 cups of Earl Grey every day. Weak with little sugar and little milk.