|
  
|
|
Types of Tea
The healthy types of tea come from the same plant, or tree, known as the
Camellia sinensis. This one plant is where Green Tea, Black Tea, and Oolong
tea comes from. And it's also the source of a new tea that's gaining in
popularity, known as white tea.
Although all of these types of tea come from the same plant, the reason they
look, smell and taste different - plus have different health benefits
associated with them - is because of the way they're processed after
harvesting.
Green tea has always been the healthier of the three main types, because it is
processed less after it is picked. Less processing allows more of the EGCG
compound to stay in the tea instead of becoming oxidized.
Black tea however, has a much darker and more robust taste because it's leaves
go through a complex process of fermentation. This process changes the EGCG
into other compounds within the black tea.
Oolong tea is only partially processed, so it is often a reddish color and
it's known to have something of a floral taste to it.
White tea is becoming a popular trend, because it is processed even less than
green tea is. White tea is also said to have a much more delicate flavor than
green tea, and it's believed to have a wide variety of health benefits too.
Some people don't like the taste of green tea, because they feel it tastes too
much like grass or some sort of raw plant. This taste is usually caused by
brewing the tea too long, but it can happen with certain brands of green tea
too. Green tea brews to a much lighter, greener color than black tea does.
There are also many different types of herbal teas which each have their own
unique health and wellness properties. These aren't actually teas, though,
since they don't come from a tea plant. Since herbal teas are made from
flowers, roots, stems and leaves of various plants, they're actually just
infusions, or more accurately: tisanes.
Herbal teas definitely have their uses in natural health and wellness care,
but it's good to know they're not technically a tea in the same sense Green
and Black teas are discussed.
Actual tea does have caffeine in it naturally, but the amounts are drastically
lower than other popular beverages. How much caffeine there is in your tea
will depend on the brand you buy, the quality of that tea, and how you brew
it. Stronger brewed teas will have more caffeine, of course. On average, though,
a cup of black tea tends to have about half the caffeine content that coffee
does and Green tea often has less than that.
There are also decaffeinated tea options, of course, but the studies are still
inconclusive about whether the process used to remove the caffeine from the
tea will also remove the healthy properties and compounds as well.
|
Sitemap
|
| |
|
|
|
