What are the Benefits of Green Tea and Black Tea?
The Tea Plant
If people had to guess which beverage has a higher consumption, coffee or tea, most people would probably say coffee. However, that is not correct. Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world.
Cameilla Sinensis is an evergreen plant that grows best in hot, humid areas with plentiful rainfall in well-draining soil. Most tea grown for commercial use is grown on estates or smallholdings, which can be as small as half a hectare. When grown on the estates, the tea plant needs 3 to 5 years to reach maturity before it can be plucked. Once it has reached maturity, tea farmers will pick the tea leaves every week to two weeks, usually by hand, until the plant has regrown enough for the tea plucking process to start over. After the leaves have been hand plucked, the leaves are weighed and are processed on the estate, or sent to another estate for processing.
Coffee is unique because depending upon where the coffee tree is grown, the soil, the climate, and the region affect its flavor, whereas tea all comes from the same plant. Cameilla Sinensis is the single plant that produces black tea, green tea, oolong tea, and white tea. The tea plant is the hardiest in Zone 8. When we talk about a hardiness zone, it is a geographic area defined to encompass a certain range of climatic conditions relevant to tea plant growth and survival.
History of The Lipton Tea Empire
When Sir Thomas Lipton snapped up five tea estates in Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), and soon had about a dozen tea estates, he was on his way to changing the world. He planted his own tea plantation and installed machinery that could handle large production and reorganized production to increase efficiency. He was a very industrious and an incredibly busy guy.
Before Lipton, shop assistants would measure tea by weight from wooden chests and fold it into paper packages. Lipton had the novel idea to sell it in pre-measured packets, Lipton Tea Bags, weighing one quarter of a pound of tea, one half of a pound of tea, and a full pound of tea. Standardization of the measurement of tea packets would make it easier for shops to handle the tea, plus, another big advantage: It would dispel any customer doubt on the accuracy of a shop's scale or the provenance of the tea. This packaging also allowed improved accessibility of tea for the lower and middle classes by packaging the tea in various weights.
"Lipton really developed the first consistent brand of tea that was the same from package to package, from location to location, every time you bought it," Michael D'Antonio, author of A Full Cup: Sir Thomas Lipton's Extraordinary Life and His Quest for the America's Cup, told NPR in 2010. "And he priced it at half the price of other manufacturers, so it was a runaway hit."
Lipton became known for selling a reliable tea product at an affordable price. Lipton could advertise his company directly on the packets. Initially, they bore the image of a Tamil tea plucker and the aforementioned slogan: "Direct from tea garden to tea pot."
What is the Difference between Green Tea and Black Tea?
The difference between green tea and black tea is in the way that the leaves are processed after they have been plucked.
When they process green tea, leaves from the tea plant are harvested, withered, and then heated up. (Except for matcha green tea, which is processed in a completely different way) Green tea is often heated up by being steamed (Japan), or heated in a wok (Chinese). By heating up the leaves, the oxidation process is stopped, which allows the leaves to keep their color as well as the majority of their flavor.
When they process black tea, the leaves are harvested and withered, but not heated up. Instead, they are torn, crushed, or rolled, which allows the leaves to start oxidizing. When the tea oxidizes, it changes colors and turns shades of dark brown and red, as well as becoming stronger in flavor.
Both green and black teas are full of antioxidants, however, green teas generally have more antioxidants because the leaves do not go through the fermentation process like black teas.
What are the Benefits of Green Tea and Black Tea?
Pomegranate green tea has huge benefits. Mix some pomegranate juice with a green tea shot instead of an espresso shot and see how you feel.
Heart Health - Extensive research has shown that the active ingredients in pomegranates are able to reduce blood pressure and lower overall cholesterol levels.
Skin - The antioxidants found in pomegranate seeds are an impressive collection of free-radical-fighting compounds, which can help improve the appearance of your skin.
Weight loss - Combining your pomegranate mixture with regular tea can give your metabolism a major boost, which means pomegranate tea helps with weight loss. This can help to improve your passive fat-burning potential, which means more calories being burned every day, if you’re trying to shed those extra pounds.
Other types of green tea also have health benefits.
Cancer prevention – Because of the antioxidants in green tea, it may help prevent breast cancer, which is the most common cancer in women. Women who drink green tea are 20% to 30% less likely to develop breast cancer according to a meta-analysis study. Men can also benefit however, as men who drink green tea have a 48% lower chance in developing prostate cancer opposed to men who did not drink green tea.
The health benefits of green tea largely stem from a small amount of antioxidants, notably flavonoids. These antioxidants are required to protect your body cells from free radicals. The good news is that when you enjoy a cup of green tea, there are quite a few benefits to be enjoyed besides just the delicious cup of green tea.
https://www.ediblewildfood.com/tea-plant.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardiness_zone
https://www.tea.co.uk/tea-growing-and-production
https://www.cupandleaf.com/blog/green-tea-vs-black-tea
https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-black-and-green-tea-tea-essentials-200614
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea#section11