We all know that tea contains caffeine, like coffee. But, is drinking tea beneficial? There are divergent shades of opinion and every now and then we hear about some study conducted somewhere which either supports the view that drinking tea is harmful or debunks it. If you are a tea drinker, no doubt you are confused about all this flip-flops. So am I, though I am not a habitual tea drinker. According to the Wikipedia, "Tea is the agricultural product of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. "Tea" also refers to the aromatic beverage prepared from the cured leaves by combination with hot or boiling water, and is the common name for the Camellia sinensis plant itself."
Apparently, there are some benefits from drinking tea regularly. But the benefits are not the same for all types of tea. That's right, types of tea. Did you know that there are different types of tea and the level of benefit differs for each type? Well, different types of tea arise from the use of leaves of different maturity and different methods of curing. The most common variety which we usually refer to as "tea" is the black tea. These are the fully oxidized leaves. In contrast, green and white tea are not oxidized and retain many of their beneficial properties. Both wilted (for black, white and oolong tea) and fresh leaves (for green tea) are used. White tea is rarer and consequently, more expensive, though it has been proven to be the most beneficial of all tea types. Finally, there is this winter tea or "kukicha" which is made from stems, stalks, twigs and old leaves pruned from the tea plant during its dormant season and dry-roasted over a fire. It is a popular health food in Japan. At times, the mere act of boiling different herbs in water has been termed as "making tea", for example herbal tea, hibiscus tea etc.
In case you are interested, here's a site which details the benefits of different kinds of tea http://www.teabenefits.com/. Didn't know that there were so many varieties did you?
