What is Tea?

Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, has been brewed into a healthy, flavorful, refreshing, and timeless beverage for thousands of years by everyone from emperors to farmers. From this one plant come the many varietals and styles of tea – white, green, yellow, red/black, purple, oolong, fermented brick tea, and the literally infinite blends or flavored teas.

It isn’t any wonder tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world considering the satisfying and palate cleansing taste, the healthfulness, and the gentle stimulation it provides to mind and body. Drinking high quality tea provides a person with more than mere enjoyment – drinking tea provides a number of health benefits.* Regardless of why you choose to drink tea, it is one of the healthiest habits a person can choose.

What the research indicates tea is helpful for:*

• ○ Fighting obesity and encouraging weight-loss/weight management [1,2]

• ○ Stimulating healthy brain function and preventing neurological decline [3,4]

• ○ Preventing cancer and cardiovascular disease [5,6]

• ○ Preventing accumulation of fats and cholesterol in the body [7,8,9]

More than just the research:

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain from drinking tea. Decades of research have established significant confidence in the healthfulness of tea such that it is generally accepted in the field of microbiology that green has been repeatedly shown to have, “beneficial effects against cancer, obesity, atherosclerosis, diabetes, bacterial and viral infections, and dental caries.” [1]

If research for its health benefits were not enough, there are plenty of other, more experiential reasons for enjoying tea;

• ○ Tea is delicious and comes in a dizzying variety of styles, flavors, and qualities. There is likely a tea you can find that you enjoy, and there is a tea for every occasion.

• ○ Tea is associated with refinement, personal cultivation, and mindfulness.

• ○ Tea is gently stimulating and hydrating, unlike coffee which is overly stimulating and very dehydrating; tea is inherently balanced between stimulating and nourishing.

See our current curated selection of high quality tea on our store website. Drink up!

Citations:

1. 1. Janssens, P. L.H.R., Hursel, R., & Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S., (2015). Nutraceuticals for body-weight management: The role of green tea catechins. Physiology & Behavior, PHB-11193.

2. 2. Suzuki, T., Pervin, M., Goto, S., Isemura, M., & Nakamura, Y. (2016). Beneficial effects of tea and the green tea catechin epigallocatechin-3-gallate on obesity. Molecules, 21, 1305-1328.

3. 3. Ma, Q., Huang, C., Cui, Q., Yang, D., Sun, K., Chen, X., & Li, X., (2016). Meta-Analysis of the association between tea intake and the risk of cognitive disorders. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0165861. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0165861.

4. 4. Feng, L., Chong, M.S., Lim, W.-S., Gao, Q., Nyunt, M.S.Z., Lee, T.-S., ... Ng, T.-P. (2016). Tea consumption reduces the incidence of neurocognitive disorders: findings from the Singapore longitudinal aging study. The Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging, 20, Issue 10, pp 1002–1009.

5. 5. Chowdhury, A., Sarkar, J., Chakraborti, T., Pramanik, P. K., Chakraborti, S. (2016). Protective role of epigallocatechin-3-gallate in health and disease: A perspective. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 78, 50–59.

6. 6. Bachrach, U., & Yaniv, Z. (2016). Green Tea and Its Role in Cancer Prevention and Therapy. Medicinal Plants - Recent Advances in Research and Development, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1085-9_13.

7. 7. Seo, D.-B., Jeong, H. W., Kim, Y.-J., Kim, S., Kim, J., Lee, J.H., ..., Lee, S.-J. (2017). Fermented green tea extract exhibits hypolipidaemic effects through the inhibition of pancreatic lipase and promotion of energy expenditure. British Journal of Nutrition, DOI: 10.1017/S0007114516004621.

8. 8. Alshatwi, A.A., Al Obaaid, M.A., Al Sedairy, S.A. et al. (2011). Black and green tea improves lipid profile and lipid peroxidation parameters in Wistar rats fed a high-cholesterol diet. Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry, 67: 95. DOI:10.1007/s13105-010-0053-3.

9. 9. Samavat, H., Newman, A. R., Wang, R., Yuan, J.-M., Wu, A. H., & Kurzer, M. S. (2016) Effects of green tea catechin extract on serum lipids in postmenopausal women: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, DOI: 10.3945/​ajcn.116.137075.

Note that all of this research can be downloaded in full from or website.

* Also note that we are required to state that: These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Tea is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.