yuck

[kindkit]

You know what needs to go away?

Stevia.

It can still be available for people who actually like it and want to use it. But it shouldn't be in things. In particular, it should not be lurking at the bottom of the ingredient list in otherwise tasty-sounding herbal teas, like the box I nearly bought today. Nor should it be in the Yogi Tea I bought a while ago without reading the ingredients carefully enough; I've decided that the sickly-sweet stevia aftertaste is the main problem with the tea, which would otherwise be okay.

Why don't tea manufacturers think I might want to decide for myself whether I want my tea to be sweet, and if so how sweet, and what kind of sweetener I want to use?

Comments

[lycomingst]

Why in the world would anybody put sweetener in ordinary tea?

[kindkit]

I don't know what you mean by "ordinary tea"--the one I almost bought was a decaffeinated green tea with citrus, the Yogi Tea is a blend of various supposedly medicinal herbs. I don't think I've seen stevia in teas that are just plain tea yet.

I do like some teas sweetened, such as chai or most black teas except darjeeling. But I certainly wouldn't put stevia in them!

[lycomingst]

I'm a coffee drinker myself and I think of sweetened teas as something like those bottles of iced tea. I agree with you that the tea drinker should be sole judge of the how, when and how much sweetener should go into their brew.

[kindkit]

I'd expect most bottled iced teas to be sweetened with something (more's the pity) but these were tea bags! Stevia is a herb, so somehow it ends up in contexts where you'd never find sugar or artificial sweeteners.

[lilacsigil]

In a TEA BAG? That's terrible! I'm an inveterate ingredient reader because artificial sweeteners (including stevia) taste like metal to me, but I wouldn't have checked a tea bag!

[kindkit]

Me neither, until I bought the Yogi Tea, wondered how it could be so damn sweet, and checked the label.

Stevia, in the US at least, has a hippie health-food sort of reputation, and the teas I've seen it in are the more hippie-ish type of herbal teas. Unlike artificial sweeteners, I think stevia is actually a prestige ingredient for a certain type of consumer.

[lilacsigil]

I think stevia is in the diet food category here so maybe it won't start sneaking into things. *crosses fingers*

[shehasathree]

ewwww :s

[kindkit]

Yes, you'd think they'd have realized that not everyone likes the taste of stevia.

[shehasathree]

i mean, i've used it myself in baking on occasion, but tea?

[st_aurafina]

It was in the tea-bag? WT-ACTUAL-F?

That's just wrong. Abominable.

[kindkit]

Yep. In two different kinds of two from two different manufacturers! In the end I bought some Twinings Lemon and Ginger tea, which has no sweeteners listed and which tastes perfectly nice as is.

[tree_and_leaf]

Nor should it be in the Yogi Tea I bought a while ago without reading the ingredients carefully enough

No, it really shouldn't! How bizarre. Either they've changed the recipe, or this is a special effort for the US market, because I used to buy a lot of Yogi tea, and it was never presweetened, unless you count the ones that had dried liquorice in (which generally listed that prominently as a main ingredient and a warning to liquorice haters like me.)

[kindkit]

I just checked the ingredient label on the box of Yogi Tea I have (it's the Bedtime blend) and it lists both stevia and licorice root. No wonder it's so sweet.

It's got to be a fairly new change, because I don't think stevia has been around very much in the US for longer than the last couple of years.

[bobcatmoran]

Stevia. In a tea bag. WTF. I can understand putting it in, say, bottled teas, even though I personally don't like it, but you don't pre-sweeten tea bags. Good grief.