How Sweet It Is!

I enjoyed lunch at Panera today with two of my co-workers. After I filled my cup with unsweetened black iced tea, I noticed the cup looked a little different.

Upon closer inspection, I found this rundown of how many teaspoons (teaspoons are easier than grams) of added sugar are in a drink that size, with no ice, depending on what drink on the list you were having.

Both of my co-workers are young men in their early 20’s, and neither of them like the taste of cola drinks, so thank goodness for that. Every time we’ve been out to lunch together they both have ordered water to drink. But one admitted that he LOVES sweetened iced tea.

I mentioned to them that I grew up drinking sweet tea and did so until my late 20’s. At the time I was trying to lose some weight and my physician recommended cutting out cokes, which I drank almost all the time, and trying to have my tea unsweetened. Giving up the cokes was not as difficult as I thought it might be, but it took me quite a while to even tolerate unsweetened tea, much less enjoy it.

But one of those funny things happened as over time I drank more and more unsweetened tea; I found I now hated the taste of sweetened tea. If a server accidentally refills my glass with sweet tea, I almost gag when I take a sip and realize it tastes sweet.

Now, as I pointed out to my co-workers, that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a sweet tooth because I definitely do. I have to constantly watch myself to not overindulge. But for some reason, sweetened tea is absolutely repulsive to me, and maybe that’s a good thing.

By the way, extra points to the first reader who comments with the name of the late actor-comedian who made the title of this post one of their signature phrases. I’m guessing no one will unless they google it, but we’ll see if anyone as old as me reads this blog, lol.