Tea
After yesterday’s post I thought maybe it was time to have a post about a foodstuff that has given much calm to many people for a very long time. You can tell I’m a tea-drinker, can’t you? It’s in the way I think about tea and the way I have at least six different varieties for different moods. Right now I’m drinking a Kenyan spiced tea and an Australian plain tea and a really good Japanese powdered tea that I whisk up in a bowl and fall into contemplation over. Tea is a drink of almost infinite possibility.
This isn’t a proper history post. If I were to give you the history of tea, it would take 6 volumes of sturdy size. This post is to get you thinking about tea’s past, no more.
Tea is a camellia variety (well, the botanical name is camellia thea). The different varieties of tea leaves available reflect the way they are processed (pan fried, dried etc).
In the eighteenth century, one of the names for it was bohea, which is my entirely useless piece of information for the day, produced simply because I’ve been doing lots of stuff based in eighteenth century society recently. My Hong Kong friends call the common garden Aussie-favourite tea “red teaâ€? and make a great pickled egg using eggs, salt and very, very strong red tea.
I often hear green tea described as Japanese, but it isn’t confined to Japan. There are Korean green tea, Chinese, and others. My current favourite is, however, Japanese. After what I said earlier, you’d think my favourite was the bitter tea used for the tea ceremony, and, while I love that style, it isn’t my top favourite. I obviously have low taste, because I prefer genmaicha - tea with very cute popped rice floating round in it, and a lovely rounded and slightly woody flavour.
You may wish to note that camellia sinensis and its relatives or melaleuca alternifolia and its relatives are not at all related and do not get confused with each other except in both being called “tea� trees- the Aussie melaleuca was used by early British settlers when tea was unavailable - and is now used for medicinal not culinary purposes. They nearly all go well with scones, though.
September 26th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Top 6 Reasons Not to Drink Tea
1- The chemicals used to remove caffeine from tea are carcinogenic as there is no swiss water method as with coffee.
2- The caffeine in tea takes twice as long to eliminate from the body.
3- Depletes the adrenal glands just like coffee
4- Decreases melatonin production = sleep disorders like insomnia
5- Caffeine acts as a diuretic (by the way, caffeine is a strong diuretic, which depletes the body of certain vitamins and minerals, such as “C�, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, and potassium
6- All teas contain flouride. Flouride is accumulative toxin. Only 50% of this poison is excreted from the body per day. The other half stays and accumulates, particualry in the brain & bones. Water contains lead & aluminium. Flouride attaches to lead & aluminum ions and heightens accumulation and increases these toxins metals to the brain. Aluminum flouride showed capacity to damage brain and kidneys in lab rats
Get the real scoop on caffeine at http://www.CaffeineAwareness.org
And if you drink decaf you wont want to miss this special free report on the Dangers of Decaf available at http://www.soyfee.com
September 27th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Well I am going to totally ignore the above comment because I love tea. I have about 20 or more varieties sitting in my kitchen cupboard. Everything is bad for you these days or good for you depending on the latest study so I just ignore all of them. Everything in moderation I say.
September 27th, 2007 at 5:33 am
I agree with Paula. If I were drinking 20 cups a day, then all of the 6 things owuld be a major concern, but I get my joy from the variety of tea and its flavour and its role in my life, not in drinking litres and litres of it at a time.
September 29th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Boy, some people just take no joy in life at all, do they! I drink tea (and coffee) because I like the taste and because sometimes, I really just want caffeine!!! Moderation in all things (’cept chocolate) *grin*.