Tea Party

Bottled Tea Comes Up Short In Antioxidant Tests

fatmady — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 05:00:03 +0000

by Meagen Voss

Tea companies like to brag about the antioxidants in their bottled tea beverages.
Some even put the amount of antioxidants on the label. But if you think that you’re getting a big dose of these natural chemicals from your favorite bottled brew, think again.

iStockphoto.com
If you’re looking for antioxidants in tea, you’re better brewing your own rather than buying the bottled stuff.

Reseachers tested bottled teas for antioxidants called polyphenols and found that most brands contain very little of them.

“Out of 49 samples, half of the bottle teas contain less then 10 milligrams of polyphenols,” says Shiming Li, a natural products chemist at WellGen, a company that’s working to develop foods for medical use.

A cup of home-brewed green or black tea has 50-150 milligrams of polyphenols. So you’d have to drink between 5 and 20 of those pint-size bottles of tea to get the same amount of antioxidants. That’s a lot of tea.

The research findings were presented this weekend at an American Chemical Society meeting in Boston. Li says the analysis was part of WellGen research toward developing a product for diabetes that contains tea concentrate.

Despite the poor antioxidant content, tea companies have benefited from the healthy image of tea. Li says that sales of bottled teas have increased 90 percent since 2004. And considering how much more bottled teas costs than tea bags, consumers could aren’t getting a bargain when it comes to antioxidants.

Tea experts have been hip to the low polyphenol levels in bottled teas for a while now. “Bottled teas are a scam,” declares Susanne Henning, a researcher at UCLA who has been studying the health effects of tea for years. “They’re mainly sugar water.”

Henning says that polyphenols in tea start breaking down after the tea is brewed. So if a bottle has been sitting on the shelf for a while, there may be only a little — if any — antioxidants in the tea. Such small amounts, says Henning, won’t provide any of the health benefits associated with tea. Plus, many tea beverages have just as much sugar as soda.

To get the most out of your tea, Henning suggests brewing a fresh batch in the morning and drinking the tea throughout the day. After 24 hours, she says, the tea should be chucked. Green tea extract is another good option, she says.

As for bottled teas, there’s nothing wrong with drinking them if you like the taste. Just don’t expect them to do much for your health.

Black Rice is a Healthy Alternative to Blueberries

Tea Gadgets

fatmady — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:00:07 +0000

Do you love your tea gadgets? Well, then, you’re in luck, since there seem to be new ones hitting the market just about every day.

Take wacky novelty tea infusers, for instance. It’s not too hard to figure out what the Sharky Tea Infuser is all about and it’s actually one of the more clever novelty items I’ve run across lately (cue the music to Jaws, please). As for this Mr. Tea teaware set – I can’t quite figure out if it’s the real deal or just a clever Photoshop trick. Judge for yourself right here.

Are you looking for a tea cup that will “help you make the perfect cup of tea, and solve the problem of storing your tea bags.” That would be the also quite clever Revolutionary Tea Cup, which comes to us courtesy of an enterprising Russian designer.

But can tea be used to make clothing, I’m sure you’ve been asking yourself? Why certainly it can. London’s Telegraph recently reported on a type of fabric that is grown in vats of tea. No, it’s not an excerpt from a new science fiction book – it’s the real thing.

Green tea is not just for drinking anymore. It’s been turning up in a variety of cosmetic and healthcare products for a while now and there’s yet another one that recently hit the market. It’s a green tea face mask and you can read more about it in this press release.

If you’re fond of using your tea leaves to tell the future, then you’ll be interested in this article from the Australian press about a “an iPhone application for virtual tea-leaf reading.” Although purists may scoff at the gadget, which operates thus, “users turn their virtual tea cup around and tap on it three times before Ms Barker-Revell [the app’s creator] reveals a computer-generated leaf pattern and explains its meaning.” Ain’t technology wonderful?

More Upcoming Tea Books

fatmady — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:00:03 +0000

If you’re looking for some new tea-related reading, you’re in luck. The next few months will see a number of interesting new tea books hitting bookstore shelves. We’ve already taken a look at a few of these titles in this article. If you’ll scroll down you can get the lowdown on a few more.

Tea Culture: History, Traditions, Celebrations, Recipes & More
by Beverly Dubrin
(October 1, 2010)
If you’re in the market for one more general overview of all things tea, Beverly Dubrin’s book might be just the thing. Some of the topics covered, according to the publisher, include “a historic overview and a look at the renowned Japanese tea ceremony…delicious recipes and ideas for thoroughly modern celebrations.”

Tea: A Global History
Helen Saberi
(October 15, 2010)
Books that strive to tackle the history of tea are also not in very short supply, but the topic is a huge one and an inquisitive author can surely dig up some new information. Food historian Helen Saberi promises to explore “this rich and fascinating history…the economic and social uses of tea, such as its use as a currency during the Tang Dynasty and 1913 creation of a tea dance called ‘Thé Dansant’ that combined tea and tango.” And that’s just for starters.

Tea and Tea Drinking
Claire Masset
(October 19, 2010)
How did become Britain’s national drink? Masset takes a look at the evolution of this once rare and exotic beverage in this slim volume, which weighs in at only 56 pages.

A Tea Lover’s Travel Diary: Phoenix Single-Tree Oolong Tea Tie Kuan Yin Oolong Tea
Jason C. S. Chen
(November 1, 2010)
Going to the other extreme, author and Chinese tea master Jason Chen devotes more than 200 pages to taking an in-depth look at just two varieties of popular oolong tea. The book also includes an introduction by another tea master, James Norwood Pratt.