Weaning off sugar in tea and coffee

[doodleschnoodle]

Anyone want to join me for this?

I’ve always always always had two sugars in my tea and coffee, but I want to cut sugar intake down so I’m going to try weaning myself off. I’ve been managing one teaspoon of sugar last couple of days and it’s starting to taste okay so I think my palate is adjusting, but not sure when to go down further!

I gave up sugar in coffee by swapping milk for cream when I could not go any lower on the sugar.
From there I went to full fat milk then to normal semi skimmed.

It is completely doable. I used to have two sugars in a coffee and one in tea. I weaned off a few years ago and I now don't have any sugar in hot drinks at all and drink black coffee which I would never have believed!

Your taste buds definitely adapt and get used to it. Maybe try going down to half a teaspoon first before you ditch it altogether.

I did this years ago I hate sugar in drinks now. Just 3/4 then 1/2 the 1/4 over a few weeks and you won't even notice

I need to do this too. But half of me thinks it’s just so nice to have a mug of tea with one sugar, when I don’t really drink alcohol or have any other vices. I can’t imagine enjoying it as much.

A tip that was given to me was to put a little bowl by the kettle, every time you put sugar in a hot drink add the same amount to the bowl, then at the end of the day you can see how much sugar you’re drinking. Personally I just weaned off, started off with 2 teaspoons in everything now I don’t have any sugar in tea and 1/4 of a teaspoon in my coffee as it’s just a bit too bitter for me without.

You can do it. I was also a two sugars in everything and went down to none. I also only drink my coffee black. I think I went down by half a teaspoon a time. Now I can even tell if someone stirred a sugary drink before mine. I think any sugar makes tea or coffee undrinkable now - you definitely adapt.

I reduced by half a teaspoon a fortnight and it was barely noticeable. By the end of the summer holidays coffee and tea with sugar tasted weird.

I just did it cold turkey
I did only have sugar in coffee, but ibwas having too many a day.
I thought this is ridiculous and after about a week of "suffering" .... every day was easier. I couldnt stand the thought of it.
I did force myself to have the same number of cups for the first few days though.

I had tried before and my half teaspoons always increased to be slightly bigger with the next cup and repeat...so i knew this was my only option.

Go cold turkey . I was practically weaned onto sweet, milky tea, gave it up for Lent aged six, and when I sugared my tea on Easter Sunday it tasted absolutely revolting. That was forty five years ago, and I’ve drink tea and coffee unsweetened ever since.

I did this decades ago. By about a month after I quit I could no longer stand sugar in tea and coffee, especially tea! It's very doable.

Your brain will quickly adapt and you’ll end up finding sugar revolting in hot drinks.

Thanks for all the advice!

To PP who said about it being their one vice, I do feel a bit like that as I don’t really drink, don’t smoke, I eat very healthily, exercise, all that stuff, but I’m having maybe 4+ cups a day of tea/coffee and that feels like a lot of excess sugar that I would rather either not have or rather have in other foods. If it was just one a day I probably wouldn’t mind, but 4 cups a day of two teaspoons of sugar is about 40g(!) which is more than I should be having in a whole day apparently, so that can’t be good.

Reducing to one teaspoon hasn’t been too painful but I think I need a few days of one teaspoon before I go down to a half. Still, I’ve halved my sugar intake in tea and coffee so far so that’s definitely something.

Would love to get to the stage where it actively tastes bad with sugar!

I went cold turkey on sugar in tea and coffee years ago, when now DH and I first moved in together. I'm afraid I was cranky as sin for about a week, then I got used to it. Now I wouldn't dream of adding sugar, it tastes horrible to me.

Trust me OP once you're used to it, sugar in tea or coffee will taste absolutely disgusting to you. It is very interesting how quickly our tastebuds adapt!

I used to order hazelnut lattes in Starbucks AND add sugar to them and today I ordered and enjoyed a black americano with no sugar. You do have to want to do it, to go through the weaning off stage but no need to rush it. Give it another few days before you reduce any further.

I'm quite surprised at these replies, everyone seems to find it so easy but I really struggled.

After 8 months of plain tea I decided to just go back to adding sugar. I found I wasn't drinking enough, getting UTIs and feeling groggy all the time because I kept refusing drinks offers at work.

Then whenever I had a cup I just couldn't bring myself to finish it because it tasted so gross, there were so many cold cups littering my desk all day!

You'd think after so long I would have adapted but apparently my taste buds are stubborn bastards!

Just an update, I’m now down to zero sugar in tea and coffee! Can’t quite believe it. Tea tastes 95% fine without now, maybe just the first sip I kind of notice and then the rest is fine. Coffee maybe 90%, but I don’t drink as much as tea so I think that’s partly the reason. I think in a week or so both will taste totally normal.