As you all know, I love tea and will drink it over coffee any day, with honey of course. In my humble opinion, no other sweetener does the flavor of tea justice. Honey compliments the taste of tea well. Below you’ll find some general helpful & healthful information on tea. Happy tea drinking!
Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. It can be served hot or cold. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world.
Iced tea is really a Southern United States invention but I hear you can get it in any part of the world now.
Tea plants are propagated from seed and cutting; it takes about 4 to 12 years for a tea plant to bear seed, and about three years before a new plant is ready for harvesting. In addition to a Zone 8 climate or warmer, tea plants require at least 127 cm (50 inches) of rainfall a year and prefer acidic soil.
Many high-quality tea plants are cultivated at elevations of up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level: at these heights, the plants grow more slowly and acquire a better flavor. Only the top 1–2 inches of the mature plant are picked. These buds and leaves are called flushes. A plant will grow a new flush every seven to 15 days during the growing season, and leaves that are slow in development tend to produce better-flavored teas.
Tea contains catechins, a type of antioxidant known to have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. It helps regulate food intake, and has an affinity for cannabinoid receptors, which may suppress pain and nausea, and provide calming effects. Tea also contains the amino acid, L-theanine which modulates caffeine’s psychoactive effect and contributes to the taste of tea. Tea contains small amounts of theobromine and theophylline as well. Theobromine is used as a vasodilator, diuretic & heart stimulant while theophylline is used in drug therapy for respiratory diseases.
Teas can generally be divided into categories based on their level of oxidation during processing. There are at least six different types of tea: white, yellow, green, oolong (or wulong), black (called red tea in China), and post fermented tea (or black tea for the Chinese) of which green is the least oxidized and black is the most oxidized. The most commonly found teas on the market are white, green, oolong, and black. Some varieties, such as green, traditional oolong tea and pu-erh tea, a post-fermented tea, can be used medicinally. Herbal tea is not necessarily made from a true tea plant but rather a combination of herbs, spices and other plant materials. They can be used medicinally as well depending on what’s in it.