Green Tea - How do you know about tea?

What do you know about tea?

Tea has proven to be of great social and medicinal value since its discovery in China around 2700 BC. It has been a part of religious societies and powerful elite families as a result of its healing and well being properties. Chinese monks shared it with Japan around 600 AD and it has since found its way to all other parts of the world. Tea is now available in many forms and is cherished for its refreshing taste and healthful properties.

How was Green tea discovered?

Shennong, the famous Chinese Emperor and herbalist is often times credited with the discovery of tea around 2737 BC. He was a learned man and believed that water became pure when it was boiled, so he introduced the custom of drinking boiled water in his court. One day while traveling a leaf blew into his hot water and when he sipped of it he felt refreshed and invigorated. He gathered samples and added it to more water.

How did tea spread to the West?

The Portugese first introduced Japanese green tea to Europe during the late 16th century. They were soon followed by the Dutch who became the largest traders of tea of the time. Europeans preferred the taste of the first black tea produced, Lapsang Souchong, over green tea and found the fully oxidized black tea easier to store and transport because black tea had a longer shelf life and a greater tolerance to temperature variances. The English soon entered the tea market and started importing tea directly from China in the mid-17th century, eventually monopolizing the importation of Chinese tea.

The American colonies started importing large quantities of tea from Great Britain’s East India Tea Company. It is said that for a time more tea was consumed in the Colonies than in England. Because of the high taxes imposed by the British on tea, the Colonies started smuggling tea from Holland leaving the British with large inventories of unsold tea. In 1773, the British retaliated passing the Tea Act. The Act resulted in the British taxing tea and forced the Colonies to buy British tea. Boston shipyard workers refused to unload the British tea. The Governor of Massachusetts tried to force the Colonists to unload the tea and pay the British tax. A group of disgruntled Colonists known as the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three British ships on December 16, 1773 and dumped more than forty tons of tea into the Boston Harbor. Taxation of tea without representation was to be one of the precursors to the American Revolution. After the Revolutionary War ended, tea fell into disfavor and coffee quickly replaced tea as the hot drink of choice in America.

For many years, green tea was rarely found outside the Asian communities in the United States. Immigrants brought green tea from China and Japan to serve in their homes and restaurants. Recently, green tea has become a popular beverage throughout the Western world because of its fragrance, taste and recognized health benefits.

What makes tea healthful?

Tea contains powerful polyphenols, antioxidants and catechins that individually and combined provide chronic disease preventative properties and a sense of well being.

The antioxidants and other compounds in the tea offer a lot demonstrated health benefits such as:

•Anti-inflammation
•Anti-allergy
•Anti-bacterial
•Anti-viral.

Other advantages:

•Good for heart: Polyphenols, antioxidants and catechins in the tea is good for heart. It checks your blood pressure and cholesterol.

•Immune system: The compound in tea stimulates the immune system so that the body is more apt to eliminate all unhealthful infections and conditions. As a result many Chinese have remained healthy and have longer lives.

•Weight loss benefit: Green tea has been shown to help in weight reduction by burning more calories and also substituting for high calorie drinks. Tea has virtually no calories and stimulants equivalent to energy drinks.

•Preventing cancers: Tea studies suggest that many cancers are prevented with long term use. The cancers studied so far include:

•Bladder cancer
•Prostate cancer
•Lung cancer
•Pancreatic cancer
•Breast cancer
•Esophageal cancer

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