2 litres of ice tea has the same amount of calories that a woman should be eating during the day. (2000 cal)
But yeah, even if it is only 100 - 400 kcal on one liter, that's a lot.
If you prefer ready made drinks, the Coop 'Alpenkraeuter' Ice - Tea is not so sweet, and addictive. Love that stuff.
As others have mentioned, if you make your own, then you know exactly how much sugar is in it (and if you use honey, you could consider yourself a step up b/c honey is a better sugar for you). Plus, you have no added preservatives, which is also very important. So definitely make it yourself if you want a "healthy" alternative.
Also, if you don't like water on its own, add some fresh lemon, lime, or cucumber (well, maybe not at the moment) to it. You would be surprised at how refreshing and great it is... And again, an even better alternative.
Good for the health
So far, orange mint (add fresh orange slices if you want it a little sweeter) and pineapple sage tea (add honey and lemon slices, or for a more fruity drink, freeze pineapple juice into ice cubes, add one or two) are my favorite iced teas for a hot summer day. (Assuming summer ever returns, that is )
A small potted plant can keep you in iced tea all summer long.
Typical is 300 kcal/liter.
Beer is slightly worse, at 430.
Tom
I found Lipton Ice Tea peach flavoured and no sugar 1kcal per 100ml or 10kcal per litre.
This makes a huge difference of 35 fold.
I think making your own tea will be even more beneficial to your health without preservatives.
It didn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it there, like it does here in the States.
Thus I cannot drink AZ tea here in the US where it originated.
You could also make your own tea and then control the amount of sugar you consume.
Alternatively, if you like Ribena or other similar concentrated drinks you could use fizzy water to make them in lieu of tap water. It makes them like a soda and much more refreshing.
i do the same with other flavors- today i found some violet sirop and have been adding a bit of bubble water and a small bit of sirop to regular water and it is refreshing but better than plain water, which i find hard to drink so much of.
Actually, being older than all other teammates in active interclub tennis team, I have to work on my stamina and fitness. Sometimes I look with amazement at these dudes that before and after 2-setter match light up a fag and take a sip of Miller. Then they still sweat it out on the court and no probs. On the other end of the scale, I sip on Powarade, bite bananas and try to stay hydrated all the time. What you don't have in your legs and muscles you have to compensate with sobriety and wit.
Do we take your profile pic as a reference
I like that boxed Migros ice-tea (but not the "Light", the regular), it tastes different than most other ice teas, not as sweet, tastes more "home-made" somehow (plus it's really cheap).
Other than that, I like the Nestea "Red Fruits" and Liptons "Green tea" as well.
However, our typical drink at home is self-made iced tea. I picked up a few 1L glass drink jugs at Migros, fill it with hot tap water, about 1/4c of sugar and a few tea bags. I've not seen the same jugs at Migros lately but I did notice some that are (I think) 1.5L at Coop that I'm thinking to start using for making sun tea.
The amount of sugar I use actually depends on what flavors I'm making, some of the more fruity teas are sweet enough on their own - although depending upon what we're planning for dinner, I sometimes make it extra sweet too. "Southern style" sweet tea is a "must" with pulled pork, corn bread and the rest of the trimmings.
If you get some "plain" tea bags, I use 3 plain and 1 flavored to give it a hint of flavor as the premade ones and mixes here are toooo sweet and overly faky flavored to me.
Coop carries Lipton teas, some of the flavors in the pyramids are really fantastic, peach mango, pineapple vanilla and wild berries are the three we usually get. Aldi and Migros also each carry some flavors we like. Recently we've been on a kick of "Heidelbeeren" (huckleberry?) with vanilla which we get at Aldi.
Meanwhile, I've been thinking I need to drink more water also as I'm suffering from caffeine withdrawal if I wait until late in the day to start drinking tea. I can do without the throbbing headache!
I usually get some of the syrups and add just a touch to some water, just enough so the water isn't plain anymore. I really miss having the Koolaid packets that come without sugar in them, I used to add a little pinch to a bottle of water for the same effect BUT I didn't add any sugar, the tartness was much more refreshing to me than a sweet drink.