What Is There About Tea?
Tea has been around a long time. Myth has the beginning of tea as a beverage dating back to about 2737 B.C. in China. Although long thought to be older than beer and wine, recent research shows tea to be about as old as beer but wine, as a fermented beverage, is older. Tea is, however, older than coffee.
In addition to being old, tea is a very popular product. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the yield in 2006 was about 3.6 million tonnes. When you consider it takes only about two grams of tea to make a cup of tea, you can see we are swimming in it.
Some people worry about the amount of caffeine in their coffee and drink tea as a means of reducing it. How much caffeine you will get though depends upon several factors such as the type of tea, the brewing time, and preparation. The most is about 110mg in a six ounce cup of black tea. But even black tea can have less.
Vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, and polyphenols are among the benefits you get from drinking a cup of tea. These help fight off the effects of our daily lives by getting rid of free radicals and also boost our bodies’ defenses. Some studies show positive effects in preventing cancer and warding off the dreaded disease Alzheimer’s. All from drinking a simple cup of what I would argue is the world’s favorite drink.
Certainly most people don’t care about all the many benefits to tea, even if that is why they first started to drink it. After a time, it simply becomes a way of life because it is simply a wonderful beverage. There are so many wonderful types of tea and if you add in herbal teas, or tisanes, the varieties are almost endless.
Over time, tea has not only been a drink. It has served as the basis for many ceremonies and events. You no doubt have heard of the Japanese tea ceremony in which a tea master will strive for excellence all his life. Then there is the afternoon tea that began in Great Britain by Anna, the Duchess of Bedford as a means of tiding one over from the morning breakfast till dinner which was served late at night. It developed into quite the thing to do and became part of English society.
While many parts of the world can and will disagree on many things from mode of dress to lifestyle to favorite foods, one things most will agree upon is the enjoyable cup of tea. Eastern philosophy and Western dictates may clash many times as we have seen through history, but the drinking of tea as a pleasurable experience is not one of them.
You can brew your tea in a clay pot or a floral Staffordshire teapot. You can use tea bags or loose tea. You can serve it in glass cups or the finest china., But one thing the many, many people around the world who drink tea know. Tea is irresistible.
