People love the refreshing experience of having a glass of sweet tea but many don’t want the extra sugar in their diets. They don’t want to give up this favorite drink but for various reasons, the sugar needs to go.
There are a number of reasons for this, including a change in lifestyle, a sugar-free lifestyle, and health concerns.
If you love your sweet tea but need to give up the sugar, you will be happy to know that there are a number of healthy alternatives that give your tea the sweetness it needs without the sugar.
These all-natural sweeteners will make your sweet tea taste great and they often have added health benefits. The good news is that you can still enjoy your sweet tea even without sugar.
1 – You Can Add Honey
Sweet tea is a popular beverage in the warmer months and it goes well with BBQ, cooking out, and all of your summer plans. You can replace the sugar with honey for a healthier and still delicious treat.
After you boil your tea, you will add raw local honey to sweeten it. You can stir in around three-quarters of a cup of honey. Then place it in the refrigerator to chill.
The honey is much healthier than sugar and it has other health benefits. It can give you vitamins, soothe your sore throat, and fight allergies.
You can get this honey from your local beekeepers and you will find this beverage to be delicious and much healthier than sugar-sweetened tea.
Directions:
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 3/4 cup of raw local honey
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
It is easy to make and the honey will be just as delicious as you expect. It will be much healthier than sweet tea made with sugar.
2 – Maple Syrup with Sweet Tea
Another popular trend is adding pure maple syrup to make your tea sweet. There are a number of reasons for this surge in popularity.
First, pure maple syrup dissolves very easily in liquids so it will mix in very well. The second reason is that pure maple syrup is more than a sweetener. It is full of nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants.
The flavor of pure maple syrup complements tea. The syrup is rich and smooth, and it adds a special flavor to tea.
Maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees. It is a clean liquid full of nutrients that flows from the maple trees early in the spring. It is made up of mostly water and it has sucrose, minerals, oligosaccharides, amino acids, organic acids, and phenolic compounds.
These minerals include potassium, zinc, calcium, and manganese. It helps with digestion, stabilizes your blood sugar, fights inflammation, and is low in sugars and calories. It is a great replacement for sugar in your sweet tea and it tastes great.
Directions:
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 3/4 cup of pure maple syrup
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
3 – Try Coconut Sugar with Your Sweet Tea
Another sugar substitute that people try is coconut sugar. It is sweet the way that sugar is but it is also similar to brown sugar in texture.
There are a lot of minerals and vitamins in it, including iron and several B vitamins. You should always try to buy organic coconut sugar to make sure that it hasn’t been exposed to any pesticides.
If you want to add coconut sugar to your tea to make it sweet, it is very easy to do. Coconut sugar replaces white sugar at a 1:1 ratio so it is very easy to substitute this healthier option in your sweet tea.
Coconut sugar has a low glycemic index, which is almost half that of white sugar. In addition, it contains potassium, magnesium, and sodium, all of which help to regulate your body’s water content.
Coconut sugar also supports your cardiovascular system with its nitrogen content. It has vitamin C and antioxidants.
Coconut sugar is technically dehydrated coconut sap so it is considered a raw food that retains all of its antioxidants in their pure form. There are many benefits to adding coconut sugar to your sweet tea.
Directions:
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 3/4 cup of coconut sugar
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
4 – Substitute with Rock Sugar
If you love the way that tea tastes and you want to sweeten it without changing the flavor, rock sugar is a great option. Rock sugar is raw sugar that has crystallized into different-sized crystals.
It isn’t as sweet as white sugar so it won’t overpower the taste of your tea. Instead, it has a mild taste that subtly sweetens your tea without overwhelming it.
Rock sugar was first made in the Tang Dynasty in China and it continues today. In addition to being a subtle sweetener, it has health benefits that have long made it a popular sweetener.
It can help soothe a sore throat or calm a cough. It can give you extra energy and help with digestion. If you store it in a sealed container and keep it away from moisture and light, it can last a long time.
Directions:
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 3/4 cup of crystallized rock sugar
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
5 – Choose Stevia to Replace Sugar
Stevia is a very popular plant-based sweetener that people often use as a substitute for sugar. It is around 200 times sweeter than sugar so you will not need to use nearly as much.
You do not need to buy packets of stevia because you can grow it in your yard and use the leaves. It is much more than a sugar replacement; it has health benefits and tastes great.
You can get stevia in a packet and it appears as a white powder. The sweetness of the stevia is extracted and added to a white powder to make the sugar substitute.
If you use the stevia leaves, it grows in your garden similar to an herb. It is native to South America and it is easy to grow. All you need is loose, loamy soil and it will grow fuller when you pinch it back.
You will want to take the leaves and stack them to dry in a cool, dark place. If you harvest the leaves in the morning, you will get the highest sweetness content and then you can stack them to dry out.
You can hang them upside down and when they are free of moisture, you can grind them into a powder and store them in a jar. They will be a perfect addition to your sweet tea.
Directions:
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 1 teaspoon of crushed stevia leaves
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
6 – Try Molasses
Molasses is a thick, syrupy sweetener. It is a by-product that is made when sugar cane and sugar beets are processed.
It has been made since 1582 by the Portuguese in the West Indies and they used it to make rum. It has always been a replacement for white sugar and it is a healthier option.
There are three types of molasses. Light molasses is used in baking, and dark molasses is thicker and used in barbeque sauces or gingerbread.
The third type is blackstrap molasses. It is made as a by-product from the third boiling of sugar cane. It is very thick and it is full of vitamins and minerals, including iron, calcium, magnesium, and more.
Molasses was used as a remedy for various ailments in the past. People used it to treat an iron deficiency and it can help relieve PMS symptoms and symptoms of ADHD. It also improves the health of your skin.
It is somewhat bitter on its own but it tastes good in your tea, and it adds just the right amount of sweetness. It has added benefits including antioxidants that help protect your cells and your body from heart disease, cancer, and more.
Directions:
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 4 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
7 – Use Fruits as Sweeteners
You can add fruit to your tea to make it sweet and it can create a lovely flavor. You have a lot of choices and you can add fruit as a juice, a nectar, or a puree. You can choose your favorite fruit and add it to your tea. It will add the perfect flavor and sweetness in place of sugar.
Strawberries are a popular fruit to add to your tea. It is refreshing and sweet. You can slice the strawberries and add them to your pitcher.
It is delicious and refreshing, and it is the perfect drink in the summer. You can also choose raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and many others. You can also combine a few different fruits.
In addition to slicing up your fruit and adding it to the tea, you can add some pureed fruit so that it is a little sweeter. You can squeeze juice out of the fruit and use that as well.
Many people like to add a slice of lemon or lime to the tea as well to balance the flavor.
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 2-1/2 cups of sliced strawberries (or other fruit)
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
- Optional: add one lemon
8 – Try Agave Nectar
The taste of agave nectar sits between honey and molasses. It mixes well with cold tea drinks. Agave nectar is a syrup that comes from the fluid in the blue agave plant.
This plant also happens to be used to make tequila. They extract the fluid from the plant and then they filter the juice. Next, the juice is heated to break its components down into fructose. The remaining concentrate is the syrup.
Agave nectar is slightly sweeter than white sugar and it has a very low glycemic index of 19, as opposed to white sugar at 60.
As a result, it doesn’t raise your blood sugar nearly as much as white sugar does. It doesn’t have as many health benefits as others on this list because it has a high fructose content.
- Boil a half-gallon of water
- Remove from the heat
- Steep the tea for five minutes
- Add 3/4 cup of agave nectar
- Stir and add a half-gallon of cold water
- Pour into a pitcher and chill in refrigerator
Final Thoughts
As people learn the negative impact of sugar, they look for substitutes for foods that need to be a little bit sweet. Sweet tea needs to be sweet but it doesn’t have to be sweetened with sugar.
There are a lot of different items that you can use in place of sugar, and they taste great and offer health benefits.
You can decide how sweet you want the tea or whether you want to add another flavor. You can use honey, molasses, syrup, or sliced fruit.
After you try a few of these substitutes, you won’t even miss the sugar. There are many different ways that you can enjoy your sweet tea.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.