A World of Health in a Mug

If you live in an area of the country that experiences a white and wild winter, you are familiar with those days when you feel like the cold whips right through you, clear to your bones. However, a cup of tea can work magic, with its warmth and soothing qualities. In the summer, tea can have cooling effects and add much-needed hydration on hot days. A versatile drink if ever there was one. A simple cup of tea. Water mixed with leaves or herbs, but something that can so easily bring you comfort, calm, peace, and tranquility. Or even a gentle and ever-so-friendly nudge to get your day going. 

These days, an almost infinite range of teas are at our beck and call: aged, herbal, medicinal, caffeinated, decaffeinated, black, white, green, in little sachets or loose. Whatever your taste or need, there is tea for it. Tea isn’t the most widely consumed drink in the world (well, besides water) for no reason. 

Let’s start with a few basics, shall we?

Herbal tea vs. Green/Black/White tea
Herbal tea is made from mixtures of plants, leaves, spices, flowers or roots. With the exception of the herbs Yerba mate, Guarana, and Yaupon (which is the only caffeine source native to the United States), most herbal teas do not contain caffeine.  Non-herbal Tea, whether green, black, white, oolong, or Pu’er, is made from leaves that come exclusively from the plant Camellia sinensis. Those leaves, to achieve their varieties, are either grown in certain areas or “processed” differently, which creates their variety.

What’s color have to do with it? 
Oxidation is a natural process that occurs once the leaves have been picked, with the leaves beginning to dry and turn color. After this process begins, the leaves are further heated or dried to achieve the variety that is desired. Black teas are the most oxidized, Matcha is the least.

And now for the zip…
(For reference, an 8 oz. serving of coffee has 95mg of caffeine.)
Pu’erh tea-totally oxidized and then aged (50-70mg)
Black teas-full oxidized (40-50mg)
Oolong-a range of oxidation (20-40mg)
Green-leaves are pan-fried (20-30mg of caffeine)
Matcha-(25-35mg)
White-leaves are not rolled or crushed in processing (10-15 mg)
Matcha green tea is merely dried and ground.

Go loose or bagged?
In general, loose leaf tea is typically higher-quality, as bagged teas can contain more “dust and fanning”, which is another way of saying “the small piece leftovers” from the tea production. What about the actual tea bags?  Paper tea bags contain smaller pieces of tea leaves but have less incidence of plastic appearing in the actual bag. Some brands whose tea bags do not contain plastic are Traditional Medicinals, Pukka, Numi Teas, Republic of Tea, Stash, Yogi Tea. By contrast, silken pyramidal bags do contain larger tea leaves but they may contain microfibers that end up in your cup. Ultimately, your best bet is loose tea for quality, taste, and variety.

The million-dollar question-Why is tea so beneficial for our bodies? 
The antioxidant content! We know that fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants and vitamins such as K and C, but tea surpasses them all and takes the crown! Antioxidants are highly beneficial to our body in that they seem to link directly to tamping down inflammation and boosting immune function, as well as destroying free radicals which can make cells misbehave. Antioxidants are the superheroes that keep our cells thriving. Green tea, which is off the charts for antioxidants, is thought by some to be the healthiest drink on the planet.

Explore, ponder, taste, and enjoy; there’s an entire world of exploration and of health in that little (or big) mug.