Taking your tea to go? Better make it colorful and enhance the nutritional content. That’s the philosophy behind loaded tea, a mixed concoction adding a range of ingredients designed to upgrade your energy, focus and weight loss efforts. The bright to ombre color combinations have made it social media fodder in nutritional circles.
But, before you waste another single-use plastic cup, learn more about what loaded tea is and get some ideas for making it at home:
What is Loaded Tea?
Loaded tea is a type of nutritional beverage combining tea with other ingredients like caffeine to increase your mental focus and clarity, boost your metabolism and decrease feelings of hunger. Although its popularity goes back many years, they’ve taken off in health, weightlifting and nutritional circles to start the day on an energized note.
To another end, loaded teas become an exercise in creativity. Each drink starts off with tea concentrate and is accompanied by a liquid designed to increase hydration or enhance metabolism, like aloe juice. Or, collagen may be added to support the body’s tissues.
From here, liquid supplement ingredients round out the nutritional profile and reflect one’s health goals. At the same time, a syrup or fruit may be added for a sweeter taste, and guarana powder ups the energizing factor. However, realize that overdoing these ingredients can overwhelm your cardiovascular system, resulting in shaking, dehydration and torpedoed energy levels once the caffeine wears off.
Benefits of Loaded Tea
In moderation, loaded tea:
- Provides you with a significant dose of antioxidants and vitamins to fuel your energy levels and nutritional goals.
- Offers an alternative caffeine source.
- Can be customized in a number of ways, based on flavor preferences and nutritional objectives.
- Can aid your weight loss efforts by speeding up your metabolism and decreasing appetite.
- Helps improve your focus and mental clarity.
Creating a Loaded Tea Recipe
Whether you’re energizing your weekend or heading off to work, base your loaded tea around:
- Buddy State tea concentrate, including our Peach Punk, Lemon Lush or Sweet Soul flavor, made for a single serving.
- Aloe vera juice, which offers a subtle flavor profile, no sugar or carbohydrates and adds hydration while enhancing your metabolism.
- Guarana powder, for an extra dose of caffeine. Or, to conserve your caffeine intake, substitute this with matcha powder.
- Collagen water to support your body’s tissues.
- Fruit to broaden the flavor profile and up the sweetness without added sugars or artificial syrups.
- Soda, for an overall bubbly texture.
- Ice to keep the drink cool.
**
Take a more sustainable approach when making your loaded tea. In addition to a lower per-serving sugar content compared to bottled beverages, Buddy State tea concentrate starts with Rainforest Alliance certified tea leaves, uses 65 times less plastic and generates 63 times less carbon dioxide in production.