Its official – tea is great for your health! But make sure what you’re drinking is real tea – this comes in four varieties: green, black, white and oolong, so the herbal teas are an infusion of a different plant that isn’t technically tea.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons tea improves our health:

• The antioxidants in tea help to prevent a whole host of cancers, including breast, skin, lung and stomach, to name a few.
• Tea helps to destroy free radicals which can damage DNA in the body. Whilst our body is designed to fight free radicals on its own, it’s not always 100% effective.
• Tea is just as hydrating as water – despite the caffeine!
• Green tea has been found to improve bone mineral density and strength. Studies suggest that people who drank tea for more than 10 years had the strongest bones.
• Evidence suggests that drinking three to four cups of tea can reduce the chances of heart attacks.
• Tea has less caffeine than coffee, coffee usually has two to three times more caffeine in it.
• Tea boosts the immune system and helps to fight off infection. Evidence shows that when some volunteers drank five cups of tea a day researchers saw higher immune activity in their blood.
• Oolong tea can aid in weight management. Studies showed that people who drank oolong tea burned slightly more calories during a two hour period compared to those who only drank water.
• White tea can make you look younger! White tea inhibits wrinkle production by strengthening elastin and collagen.

So all of these reasons go to show that tea is fabulous, so get brewing!

Source: www.teaadvisorypanel.com

Related articles:

• Tea: a history of Britain’s favourite drink
• Essential rules for making tea

Around 90% of the tea drunk in Britain is blended; these popular branded names can contain up to 35 different teas, each with their own secret recipe. Some of these popular brands are even blended to cope with the various different types of water in Britain, ensuring that the same quality taste is maintained.

It is the job of a tea blender – a tea taster of many years standing – to make sure that his company blend meets all the criteria required by his tea company. To do this, the tea blender, along with the buyers (also tea tasters) will taste the teas purchased at auction to assess whether they have been contaminated or damaged whilst in storage awaiting auction.

The blender’s results are logged on a computer, then the required number of sacks of different teas are put into a large blending drum which rotates and mixes the teas together.

It takes five years to become a tea taster, and then the learning is continuous. During a day, a tea taster can sample between 200-1,000 teas, this is to ensure that the company’s brand remains consistent. The process is very precise, with each tea’s leaves laid out in containers on a tasting bench, then boiling water is poured on and the brewing carefully timed for 5-6 minutes. The brewed tea is then poured into tasting bowls and the infused leaf is tipped onto the lid of the brewing cup.

The taster then “slurps” the tea (similar to the method of a wine taster) and the liquid is rolled around the mouth to assess the flavour before spitting it out. The tea taster will then take into account the appearance of the dry leaf, the infused leaf as well as the colour and quality of the brew.

Related articles:

• Tea: a history of Britain’s favourite drink
• Essential rules for making tea