I've been drinking loose tea for a while now and it is tough to say what is
the best tea.  It would be like saying what is the best color, everyone has
their own preference.  The best way to find the tea you like is to try
sample teas from the various families, eg black teas, greet teas, etc and
then try different brands.

My personal preference are the Assam teas.

Ditto the Tazo brands are excellant. If you google 'teas naturally
sweet' you get a range of responses.

Note that white teas, which are young picked leaves are naturally
sweeter.
Flavored and scented teas, such as with cloves and or orange citrus are
lighter and 'sweeter' to the taste.
Browse here to learn more about teas:
http://www.specialteas.com/
Stash teas are my favorite: http://www.stashtea.com/index.shtml
And I like some Celestial Seasonings flavors too:
http://www.celestialseasonings.com/index.html

I am surprised no one mentioned honey as a 'natural' sweetner option. I
buy an organic honey that is stronger in flavor and sweetness than the
regular pasturized watered down version you find in the typical grocery
jam aisle. Its about 60 calories per tablespoon, but you really only
need to use about 1/8 of that to sweeten a cup of tea and proabably way
better for you than any artificial sweetner.

I might mention too that everything is what you get used to. If you cut
back on sugar in teas you will find that you will need less and less
until you dont require that 'sweetness' in order to drink them. Its
like when you cut back on salt and then have something you usually ate
months before and its acck! soooo salty. Similar with sugar. Here's a
primer on why sugar makes us fat, where its hidden in foods, and the
differences btwn artificial sweetners:
http://www.geocities.com/jgrrl2/sugar.html

joanne

Thanks, I'll try them. I have been drinking green tea by Lipton, the
one with Mandarin oranges. It is great, but I do add 2 Splenda packets
to it. dkw