Here is my recipe for iced tea lattes that was featured in my Hungry Husky column in this week’s Daily Campus…

Have you ever sat at a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts enjoying a tea latte or perhaps an iced coffee? I, like many of you, have. I started thinking about how many calories, grams of fat and sugar were in my chai tea latte. Even more than that, I wondered how much money we spend a week on buying coffee or tea at these places. So, I decided there must be a way to be able to enjoy these drinks in a healthier way and on a healthier budget. This is a recipe for my solution to this little problem we all seem to have, a homemade iced tea latte.



Time: 15 minutes

Makes 4 cups

Here’s what you’ll need:

3 tea bags of your choice (like earl grey or chai tea)

1 cup of boiling hot water

3 cups of cold water

Milk of your choice

Sugar or honey to sweeten

Simply boil the hot water. Once the water is ready, pour it into a pitcher. Add your tea bags to the pitcher and let steep for a couple minutes or until you get the desired color and strength of tea. You can also use two tea bags if you prefer less steeped tea and on the other hand you can use four tea bags if you prefer very strong tea. Adjust as you see necessary but three tea bags for four cups worked well for me. Then remove your tea bags and add the cold water to the pitcher.

I placed this pitcher of tea in the fridge so that when I was in the mood for an iced tea, I could simply pour the tea into a glass, add a couple ice cubes, a splash of milk and sweeten it with a little sugar. This tea is also nice because it will keep in the fridge so you can make it ahead of time to have when you want a cool, refreshing and caffeinated (or un-caffeinated if you prefer) drink.

Now making this at home will surely save you a couple dollars that would have gone to your coffee shop of choice and those couple dollars add up. But what’s even nicer about this alternative is the health benefits.

If you make this recipe and sit down with your serving of brewed tea with a tablespoon of milk and a packet (about a teaspoon) of granulated sugar. Your tea has just 30 calories, 6 grams of sugar, and 0.3 grams of fat. Now let’s say you sit down at home with the same tea latte but from Starbucks. Assuming you order a “short” which is one serving of eight ounces and not a tall, 12 ounces, or a grande, 16 ounces, you will be ingesting 120 calories, 21 grams of sugar, and 1.5 grams of fat.

The tea you make at home for basically nothing has 90 less calories, 15 less grams of sugar, and 0.9 less grams of fat. Though we all utilize these places because of time and convenience, it’s actually more beneficial for your health and your wallet if you make that same tea at home.