Tea for better health

[Rajec]

Hi. I am great tea fan especially because of its influence on health.

My question would be what is best way of leaching it.

I know that is always written on tea how you long you should leach it and what is temperature. By leaching it like this you get better taste. I am looking for better influence on health. For example you should leach it little longer because because of flavanoides. I am just not sure how long is best.

Secondly what should be temperature of water. I don't want to destroy any good vitamins and other healthy stuff in tea. Isn't 70 degree of Celsius too much? You can't harm by less hot water can you?

[Andrew Brunelle]

What I usually do is I put the pot on the stove and I wait until I hear it to start boiling, but nowhere near whistling. It's not too hot that you can't take a sip right away. But don't take a big sip. Some people like to boil the water to the point of whistling, and I find it to be too damaging to the taste of the tea. I'm sure it also destroys some of the good stuff. I drink green and black tea mostly. Flavored teas though from Republic of Tea. It's good stuff.

I don't know what you mean by leaching it. I do know about steeping, but not leaching. I'm not even sure if you're using tea bags or tea leaves. I would say that matcha green tea is supposed to have the best health benefits and it is a powder.

No matter what you do to it, I'm sure it will still have some benefit, but overly hot water could damage some of the antioxidants. Iced tea solves that problem, but it takes so much longer to taste like anything.

[lightthecandle]

i hate warm drinks....
would it still be beneficial if i put it in the fridge for an hour, then drink it?

[ReinventingMe]

What I see here (and do also) is simply putting the tea leaves in a water bottle (or drinking vessel of choice), carry it around with you all day, adding water as needed. There are cups that have a screen, but most people just let the leaves settle to the bottom. I use about 2 or 3 tablespoons of loose green tea leaves in my 1 liter water bottle and refill it 3 or 4 times during the day (keeping the same tea inside).

[runningbird]

70 degrees celsius too much? now way! That is the minimum for green tea, which should be steeped in cooler water than black tea and for shorter time. It also depends on the tea. I wouldn't steep sencha tea for more than 3-4 minutes because it can become extremely bitter, but something like white monkey you can steep for maybe 5-6.

For black tea I use almost boiling, maybe 95 C. White tea is usually steeped at the same temp as green except for longer - about 8 minutes.

White tea has the most antioxidants, so if that is your main concern go with white.

[Rajec]

Originally Posted by runningbird

70 degrees celsius too much? now way! That is the minimum for green tea, which should be steeped in cooler water than black tea and for shorter time. It also depends on the tea. I wouldn't steep sencha tea for more than 3-4 minutes because it can become extremely bitter, but something like white monkey you can steep for maybe 5-6.

For black tea I use almost boiling, maybe 95 C. White tea is usually steeped at the same temp as green except for longer - about 8 minutes.

White tea has the most antioxidants, so if that is your main concern go with white.

Thanks for your time. I think I wasn't clear enough. 70 degrees isn't too much for green if you care about taste but what about vitams in it. I am intersteded in all those great things which tea has.

[Rajec]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

What I usually do is I put the pot on the stove and I wait until I hear it to start boiling, but nowhere near whistling. It's not too hot that you can't take a sip right away. But don't take a big sip. Some people like to boil the water to the point of whistling, and I find it to be too damaging to the taste of the tea. I'm sure it also destroys some of the good stuff. I drink green and black tea mostly. Flavored teas though from Republic of Tea. It's good stuff.

I don't know what you mean by leaching it. I do know about steeping, but not leaching. I'm not even sure if you're using tea bags or tea leaves. I would say that matcha green tea is supposed to have the best health benefits and it is a powder.

No matter what you do to it, I'm sure it will still have some benefit, but overly hot water could damage some of the antioxidants. Iced tea solves that problem, but it takes so much longer to taste like anything.

I wasn't sure about word leech. I ment how long you let leaves staty in watter.

[Rajec]

Originally Posted by lightthecandle

i hate warm drinks....
would it still be beneficial if i put it in the fridge for an hour, then drink it?

I think so even I can't be sure. I would worry more about hight temperature than about low temperature, if temperature in your fridge isn't something like -60 degrees

[namitsu]

Originally Posted by lightthecandle

i hate warm drinks....
would it still be beneficial if i put it in the fridge for an hour, then drink it?

On hot days in Japan I would toss in like 5 icecubes right after brewing some nice cup 'o sencha to get instant iced green tea. Really good! Probably still healthy but I haven't researched it. I do know that generally Japanese people think it's healthy. There is tons of refridgerated green tea in those vending machines and it looked like they drink it all day.