Sparkling ice tea

What to buy: tea in bags, sparkling water
Where to buy: your closest grocery store
Why we approve: it has zero calories and is more refreshing than regular ice tea

On a hot day, we all want to reach for some soda. For a lot of us, even the diet varieties are off the list as they trigger unwanted sugar cravings. At a restaurant, I will often order unsweetened ice tea or sparkling water, but I recently discovered, that making my own ice tea at home was easy and convenient.

Preparation:
To make ice tea, I normally boil 4 cups of water and then soak 4 tea bags for about 10 minutes. I take them out and then keep the thick tea in the fridge. When I feel like it, I just use a few cubes of ice in a glass and fill it up with the tea - there you have it - delicious and refreshing.

This weekend I thought, why not add just a bit of ice tea and fill up the rest with sparkling water? The result was amazing - bubbly, touching your tongue with coolness and very very satisfying. I used cinnamon spice tea, so it was even slightly exotic. For those of you who need sweetener - honey, maple syrup or Stevia (leaves or powder) will all do just fine! If your goal is fat loss, stick to Stevia, if you are maintaining you can be a little bit more liberal and spend your calories on some of the other sweet flavorings.

Enjoy your hot summer days with a glass of sparkling ice tea and let us know what you think!

Variations: Feel free to add lemon. lime, orange or graperfuit, as well as vanilla extract, honey, maple syrup or Stevia 

Pros: refreshing, easy to make and zero calories, unless you add sweetener
Cons: you might like your sparkling drinks a lot sweeter, it works for me