Tea History, Production and Benefits.

Tea History, Production and Benefits.
Tea is the most popular beverage in the world after water. From the Asia to Europe tea is enjoyed both hot and cold.
One of our customers wrote "If you are cold, tea will warm you; If you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you." We think that sums it up!

How to make Tea
The best way to make tea is to use an electric kettle to boil the water. The advantage is the water is actually boiling when you pour it over the tea, either in a cup or in a teapot. This helps to extract the most flavor from the tea, and it reduces the length of time you need to brew the tea. The longer you brew, the more bitter tasting tannin will be dissolved. An electric kettle is found in almost every home in Europe for this reason. Heating water in the microwave is slower, more dangerous and produces inferior tea. This is why we sell hundreds of electric kettles every month.
You will also get better results using loose tea in a teapot, rather than teabags. Loose tea is not ground as fine as the tea in tea bags, as it has more room to circulate in the pot. The finer tea is ground the more bitter tannin is released. Use a tea strainer to avoid getting tea leaves in your cup.

History of Tea
It is said that tea was discovered accidentally by emperor Shen Nung back in 2700BC. After a large meal one day, he was relaxing in the garden with a cup of boiling water. On this occasion, some leaves from a nearby tree fell into the cup unnoticed and he consumed the drink. He enjoyed the taste of the tea and the pain relief of the drink so much, that the cup of tea was born.
The first tea used in England came from China, and it wasn't until the 19th century that tea growing spread to other countries and indigenous tea was discovered in Assam. The UK is the largest importer of tea.

Manufacture of Tea
Tea manufacture is the process of converting young fresh tea shoots into dry black tea. This involves a number of processes from plucking to packing. At the plucking stage, only the top leaf tips are picked every 6 to 7 days. The tip leaves are younger and finer which produce a better quality tea.The fresh green leaves now need to have the moisture removed from them. This is done by blowing air through the leaves for up to 14 hours, leaving a soft and pliable leaf. There are then two ways of treating the tea. Tea which is to be used as loose leaf, will normally be rolled gently to create a twisted appearance.
In contrast, tea which is to be used for tea bags, is shredded and crushed to produce a small granular product. Rolling and crushing the leaves, results in the rupturing of the leaf cells which allows oxidation to occur. This gives the tea its distinctive black colour and flavour. The tea is then dried at high temperatures to achieve the correct taste. When it has been dried, the leaf tea is of differing sizes and will also contain pieces of fibre and stalk. At this point it is processed to remove pieces of stalk which will then leave tea suitable to be sold as loose tea. The tea is passed through varying sizes of meshes to sort it and has to be passed through very fine ones in order to produce tea fine enough for tea bag production. This process of sorting is a harsh one and it can cause the tea to lose some of its flavour. That is why loose tea usually has a better flavour than the tea in a tea bag.

Medical Benefits of Tea and How Tea is good for you
Tea is healthier than water.
"Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants, so it's got two things going for it," said Dr. Carrie Ruxton, nutrition team leader.
In a recent study by The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dr. Ruxton and her team from King's College, London, found that tea is healthier for your body than plain water. Tea not only re-hydrates the body, but it also contains disease-fighting antioxidants. Because of these antioxidants, drinking tea may offer protection against heart disease, stroke and many types of cancer including: lung, mouth, breast, pancreas, colorectal, esophageal, bladder and skin.

Tea does a body good
Dr. Ruxtons research found that consuming four cups of tea a day allows maximum health benefits. Even three cups a day reduces risk of heart attack by 11 percent. Drinking tea helps boost the immune system and strengthen teeth and bones. It also aids in blocking LDL (bad) cholesterol and increasing HDL (good) cholesterol, which improves artery function. The essential oils in tea leaves help digestion, and green tea is even thought to aid in weight loss.
Some may worry that the caffeine in tea may cause dehydration, but Dr. Ruxton assures consumers that is not the case. In fact, caffeine has many positive functions like relieving headaches, improving mood and helping concentration. It is also considered an age old remedy for asthma symptoms.
"Many people wrongly think that drinking tea will make you lose fluid and become more thirsty, but this is a myth. Studies on caffeine have found very high doses dehydrate... but even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid. Tea is in fact re-hydrating, not dehydrating," said Dr. Ruxton.

Tea keeps the mind young
Another new study shows that green tea may protect an aging brain. Green tea is very popular in Asia and has long been deemed as a soothing health tonic. Japan has a lower rate of Alzheimer�s disease and other forms of dementia than the U.S. and other Western countries, and it could be attributed to the high levels of green tea consumption.
Researchers from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that seniors in Japan who drank one or more cups of green tea a day were half as likely to show cognitive and memory problems as those who drank less. The more tea the subjects drank, the lower their chances of having mental difficulties. Members of green tea-drinking cultures usually consume three cups a day.
Green tea contains the potent compound EGCG, which seems to inhibit the production of beta-amyloid, a toxic protein that clogs the brains of Alzheimers victims. Other studies show that EGCG may prevent heart disease, certain cancers, bacterial infections and the spread of HIV.

All teas are healthy
Although EGCG is present in all teas that come from the Camellia sinensis plant (black, oolong and green), green tea contains the highest levels of EGCG after processing. In her study Dr. Ruxton and her team found that black tea had healthy effects on the body as well.
"We found some research showing that black and green tea contained similar amounts of antioxidants, but different types. This can be expected as they come from the same plant, but go through different processing," said Dr. Ruxton.
All teas contain health-promoting substances for the heart, body and mind. Drinking tea is a great way to relax and a good natural source of antioxidants. A daily serving of tea (three cups) contains eight times the antioxidants of one apple. Enjoy a soothing and delicious drink that is good for you. A few cups a day will keep the doctor away!

More on Health Benefits of Tea
In General
A flurry of discoveries about tea's health benefits, plus renewed appreciation of its ancient heritage, has pushed tea to the fore. Its antioxidants appear to lower cholesterol levels, improve cardiovascular health and help guard against some cancers. And some experts believe its flavenoids may inhibit the growth of plaque on teeth. Tea's active ingredients are caffeine in combination with the tannin that gives it its pungency and much of its aroma and flavor (which essential oils also enhance). The New York Academy of Medicine held a symposium on "Pharmacological and Physiological Effects of Tea" in 1955 and found that, for reasons they could not explain, tea, unlike coffee, does not cause nervousness, insomnia, or stomach irritation when drunk in quantity. The scientists' tests showed a cup of tea gives both an immediate and a delayed lift without secondary depressing effects later on. They agreed tea is a good agent for relieving fatigue and aids clearness of thought and digestion alike.

The Tea Cure
For years, studies in China and Japan have shown that the folklore about tea does contain some truth -- it does promote longer life. Japanese smokers have only half the lung cancer rate as American smokers.
In areas of Japan where the most tea is drunk, the rate of stomach cancer is the lowest. In a study of 6,000 Japanese women, those who drank 5 cups or more of green tea per day cut their risk of strokes by 50 percent. "Drinking tea with meals in Japan and China," says a cancer researcher at the University of British Columbia, "is thought to be a major reason for low cancer rates in these countries." Long-term consumption of black tea -- the kind that most Americans and Europeans drink -- and of other foods such as apples containing chemicals called flavonoids was associated with a much lower risk of stroke in a study of 552 Dutch men. Flavonoids are natural vitaminlike compounds. They make blood cells called platelets less prone to clotting, and act as antioxidants, countering the artery-damaging potential of highly reactive free radical chemicals.
In the study, men with a high flavonoid intake had a 73 percent lower risk of stroke during 15 years of follow-up, compared with men with a low intake of flavonoids. The men in the study got about 70 percent of their flavonoids from drinking black tea.
Men who drank more than 4.7 cups of tea a day had a 69 percent reduced risk of stroke compared with men who drank less than 2.6 cups a day, said the researchers of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection in Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
Tea also helps prevent tooth decay in several ways. It contains a solid dose of fluoride and works better than the antibiotic tetracycline. According to researchers at the Tokyo Dental College, it fights the kinds of bacteria in the mouth that cause gum disease and the eventual loss of the teeth. It also kills the greatest cavity-causing bacteria in the mouth, Streptococcus mutans.
In addition, researchers in Australia announced that a cup of tea could be the next weapon in the fight against skin cancer. A study by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization revealed that mice made to sip black tea suffered 54 percent fewer cancers than those that drank water. Both sets of test animals were exposed to levels of ultraviolet rays that an average Australian receives. Earlier studies on black tea have shown that it can be effective against some forms of cancer and may even prevent heart and liver disease. Properties in green and black tea called antioxidants are thought to be active agents against skin cancer. In the past 10 to 15 years, a growing body of research has shown that foods and vitamins with a strong anti-oxidant effect may reduce the risk of many diseases, including cancer and aging. Human trials using black tea as a preventative against skin cancer began in Australia in 1997.

More on Tea
Pu-Erh Tea
Pu-erh tea (pronounced "POO-air"), from Yunnan province in China, has long been considered a special delicacy and an indispensable part of daily health care. Many give this remarkable tea credit for restoring and maintaining good health. Generations of Chinese have drunk this tea after rich meals to "cut the grease." In the 1970's Chinese doctors in Kunming reported clinical experiments in which drinking pu-erh was shown to lower cholesterol levels in the blood stream. French researchers at St. Antoine Hospital in Paris duplicated these results and found that three cups of pu-erh a day for a month brought lipids down 25 percent in 20 hyperlipidemia patients, while those on other teas showed no change. These tests showed pu-erh performed at least as well as clofibrate, the most advanced medicine for the purpose, without the drug's side effects. It has since been shown to help reduce body weight by increasing the metabolism. Many report that drinking it after meals relieves any overstuffed feelings and aids digestion. The Chinese claim that pu-erh also can lower blood alcohol after drinking, prevent dysentery, and stimulate secretions from the spleen and other organs.

Iced Teas
Iced tea works as well as hot tea in bestowing health benefits. An American invention and very rare in the rest of the world, 80 percent of the tea drunk in America is iced. Keemun is one of Holy Mountain's teas that works well over ice.
Herbal Teas Research has shown that green tea may contain cancer-fighting agents, and certain herbal teas claim to combat or soothe many maladies.
Herbal teas, called tisanes, technically are not teas at all, but infusions of various herbs, flowers and spices instead of Camellia sinensis leaves. Many herbal teas use catchy names and packaging to enhance their appeal. Among them are: Allergy Season Tea by The Yogi Tea Co., Herbal Throat Tea by Celestial Seasonings, Steady Stomach by Herbal Comfort, and PMS Tea by Traditional Medicinals. As with anything, herbal teas should be consumed in moderation.