Yes, you can have peppermint and camomile tea. Most herbal teas are fine.

If you want to make up some sugar free jelly and have it with cream then I would allow one portion a day.

On the aspartame front, there is still little alternative in low calorie drinks or sugar free squashes. I suggest you have just a little of these, from week 3. Aspartamene can cause you to stall as your body may see it as sugar. I have a small amount of it each day as sugar free squash. You can now buy splenda in the supermarket which you can use to sweeten things you make.

Would not go for pepperamis until after week 2. These have a lot of preservatives in and so are not the best things to eat. Good in an emergency though.

Hope that helps.