Tipnut’s Guide To Green Tea

Did you know that when tea was first discovered, it was mainly used for medicinal purposes? Over time tea became better known as a daily beverage (it’s second only to water). I’m a coffee lover and never had much luck finding a satisfying tea, but after hearing so much about how good tea was for you, I took some time investigating teas, sampling different blends and now I’m hooked! Here’s what I’ve learned…

Suggested Health Benefits Of Green Tea

• Helps prevent gum disease, plaque buildup, bad breath & cavities (tea contains fluoride)
• Boosts the immune system, resists infections
• Reduces risk of breast cancer & prevents other cancers
• Lowers the risk of heart disease
• Lowers bad cholesterol and increases good cholesterol (HDL) plus prevents the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (reduce the buildup of plaque in arteries)
• Helps with weight loss, raises the metabolic rate, burns calories and speeds up fat oxidation
• Helps fight against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
• A great way to stay hydrated and meet the daily water intake requirements

Tea isn’t meant to replace fruits or vegetables, but tea leaves contain more antioxidants than many antioxidant rich produce. The antioxidant activity in two cups of tea is equal to seven glasses of orange juice, five medium-sized onions or four medium-sized apples (See: Tea.ca).

There are plenty of studies done that suggest many more benefits of drinking green tea daily, you can do some research online for more information.

Different Types Of Teas

The plant Camellia sinensis is where tea comes from and it’s made into four different kinds of tea: Black Tea, Oolong Tea, Green Tea and White Tea. Although they all come from the same plant, each tea is different in flavor, aroma and color. This is mainly due to how the leaves are prepared.

Black Tea (fermented)

• Yields a hearty and more pronounced flavor of tea
• Has higher caffeine content
• This is the most popular type of tea and one that you’re probably most familiar with
• Black tea is a reddish-orange color

Oolong Tea (semi-fermented)

• This tea is pronounced as “woolong”
• The flavor and caffeine content is between the black tea and the green tea
• Oolong tea is a light brown tea with delicate flavor

Green Tea (unfermented)

• Goes through less processing than the other varieties of tea above, therefore it has more health benefits
• Produces a tea that is pale greenish or yellow in color

White Tea (unfermented)

• This is the purest form of tea since it undergoes the least amount of processing
• Contains the most amount of anti-oxidants
• Contains the least amount of caffeine
• This tea is handpicked in early spring, making it limited in quantity

Each of the four types of teas are separated by leaf quality, region they were grown in, how it’s harvested and may be flavored with oils or herbal blends–each giving a different taste experience. That’s why you’ll find many different varieties of Green Tea, White Tea, Oolong and Black Tea. It’s quite an adventure to sample all the different teas available!

Herbal Teas

Herbal teas are an infusion made from ingredients other than the Camellia sinensis plant. They’re made from herbs and plants (such as mint or chamomile). Although the benefits of drinking herbal teas are different than green teas, you’ll still find drinking herbal tea a good choice. See this page for how to make your own herbal teas: Homemade Herbal Teas – How To.

Rooibos Tea

Rooibos tea is gaining in popularity as a beneficial beverage with health qualities compared to green tea, but it’s not a true tea since it doesn’t use leaves from the Camellia consensus plant and comes from the South African shrub Aspalathus linearis.

• Is reported to dissolve and prevent cholesterol buildup (preventing heart disease)
• High in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants
• Contains no caffeine
• Is favored as both a hot and cold drink
• Low in tannin
• Is pronounced as “RoyBoss”

How Much Tea To Drink Daily

Drinking three to ten cups of green tea a day is believed a sufficient amount to receive health benefits (with an average of five seeming to meet most requirements).

Since the tea naturally contains fluoride, you may wish to use fluoride free toothpaste or filtered water so you don’t consume too much fluoride daily (too much fluoride is a problem).

There is also a suggestion by some that women should limit their tea intake during pregnancy since there is a concern how large levels of tea may affect fetal development. I haven’t been able to find anything concrete on this nor have I found anything suggesting that women in Asia (who are traditionally large drinkers of green tea) have more difficulties with pregnancies than women who don’t drink tea.

Caffeine Content In Tea

Teas do contain caffeine, but typically 1/3 to 1/2 less than coffee (when comparing liquid volume). To drop the levels of the caffeine you can do a couple things:

• Dump the first steeped batch (steep tea for about 30 seconds, dump water then add a fresh batch of water to steep)
• You can also reduce the brewing time since the longer tea is brewed, the higher the caffeine levels will be (this will affect flavor)

How To Store Green Tea

Tea should be handled in the same manner as herbs and spices, you want to keep them sealed airtight, in the dark and avoid moisture.

You can buy small tins or cannisters for tea or just keep them in ziploc bags with as much air removed as possible.

If stored properly, teas can be kept quite awhile before becoming stale. I’ve found some suggestions that teas stored adequately are good for years, but fresh tea is best.

Buying Green Tea

Considering you can brew three full steeps of green tea from each measured amount of dried loose tea (without noticeably affecting the flavor), and you only need approximately 1 level teaspoon of tea per cup, buying good quality tea is a luxury that you can likely afford. It’s actually quite a frugal beverage–especially when compared to coffee. One tea blend I enjoy costs me less than 10 cents a cup (and that includes shipping & handling fees)!

My initial experiences with green tea were a turn off, I was trying the boxes of “special” tea bags you buy in the grocery store. I’ve discovered that these teas are mainly made of the bits and pieces leftover from making the good stuff (or tea that didn’t meet quality requirements for selling as good loose leaf tea). No wonder I could never figure out what the big deal was about green tea .

If you want to experience what green tea is really all about, you need to go to a specialty tea store or buy some online. They’ll come in packages of loose tea, not as tea bags, and they taste so much better and are vastly different than the cheap stuff. You really don’t need to spend a lot of money to get started, try a small sample bag or two and you’ll see how many cups of delicious tea that will get you (remember you can get three steeps per teaspoon when using good quality tea). You may find yourself hooked like I did, but thankfully–green tea is a guilt-free, inexpensive & healthy addiction .

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