Sweeteners

What kind of sweetener you use in your tea (if any) can be a very important decision. Generally, you only want a touch of sweetener in your tea to bring out the flavor and soften any bitterness that may be present. An exception to this is chai tea, as you may need somewhat more to bring out the flavor of all the spices.

Still, there are many sweeteners out there and they can greatly affect your beverage.

White sugar is, of course, the sweetener most people are familiar with. It doesn't really do anything to the flavor of your tea beyond making it sweeter. I avoid it, but only because it's refined and processed and all that crap most people don't care about.

Raw sugar will sweeten your tea just the same as white sugar, but it may add a faint molasses taste, and being that it's not processed as much, is marginally better for you than white sugar. Brown sugar is slightly less sweet because it isn't as dense, but it will definitely affect the flavor of your tea.

Honey is a popular sweetener given how much it rocks. It's much better for you than sugar, as it contains minerals, antioxidants, and has antibiotic properties. Raw honey is even better and may help alleviate one's pollen allergies. Once you get into honey, you'll find there are actually many different kinds of honey, but I'll go into that in a later article.

A less popular but totally awesome sweetener is agave nectar. I've seen it come in amber and light varieties—I've only tried the amber, and I love it. It's much runnier than honey, which means it dissolved a hell of a lot easier, and to boot it's also somewhat sweeter than sugar (while honey is slightly less sweet), meaning it takes less to reach your desired sweetness. It's also mostly fructose, which means it has an extremely low glycemic load (the lowest of all non-artificial sweeteners, I believe).

Corn syrup is no good. Avoid it. Molasses I have not tried, but I think it would be too strongly flavored to complement tea well.

Artificial sweeteners are crap and are bad for you. Avoid them.

Use Stevia if you don't want any calories (even though a tiny dollop of honey will only be 5-15 calories). Stevia is actually banned for use as a sweetener in the U.S., but is available as an "herbal supplement." I don't see how that follows, so I can only assume the sugar industry has been giving some government officials pretty sweet deals. Although be forewarned: Stevia's sweetness is a little different than that of sugar's. It's not bad, but it does take some getting used to, as it has a stronger and longer-lasting aftertaste than sugar.


And, of course, you can always just take your tea without any additives, although I prefer just a tiny touch of honey, agave nectar, or raw sugar. Just a small dot on a teaspoon is all.

Good Earth Sweet Citrus White Tea

Okay, so Sweet Citrus White Tea by Good Earth is a bagged tea. I know I said teabags suck before, and these are not those pyramid bags, but again, loose leaf tea is usually too much trouble to deal with when I'm at work. Despite this, it is a pretty good tea.

Actually, it doesn't have much of a tea taste. White tea has a very delicate flavor that is easily overwhelmed, and this blend contains the following in addition to organic white tea:

Organic lemongrass
Organic chamomile
Organic rose petals
Organic rosehips
Organic lemon oil
Organic flavor
Organic jasmine
Organic orange oil

With all these more powerful flavors, the white tea is entirely masked, so white tea lovers should not expect a white tea taste here.

Despite all this, it really is a good tea. It produces a very relaxing brew (thanks to the chamomile and lemongrass) full of mild flavors and enough sweetness to make it pleasant, but not so much as to make it seem artificial or gross. The smell is very citrusy, almost perfumey, but the resulting brew only has a hint of oranges--the lemongrass and chamomile are definitely the dominant flavors. Because of this, it actually tastes like a tisane, but it does say there's white tea in this, so I'll just have to trust these Good Earth guys.

I like to have this tea in the late morning and mid-afternoon when I'm at work, though I think it would go best on a lazy sunday in mid-winter, curled up on the couch with a loved one while watching a Star Trek: The Next Generation marathon.

Coincidentally, I'm actually drinking some out of my Lt. Commander Data mug right now. First he reminds us of our humanity, and now I can drink tea out of him. What CAN'T that android do?

Tea Fights Crime

Tea Prevents Crime (in addition to tooth decay, cancer, hypertension, etc.)

A mother and her 6-month old girl escaped unhurt after she calmed down a knife-wielding robber with a glass of iced tea and a chat, Tokyo police said Wednesday.

Read the whole article here.


In movies you always see the woman throw a cup of hot coffee in the bad guy's face, but does it ever stop him? Nope. So apparently tea is better than coffee in this respect, too (and it's less wasteful).

Decaffeinating Tea at Home

Many of us have heard this tea "fact," and indeed, many tea companies (and Wikipedia) also espouse it as an easy method to remove most of the caffeine in your tea leaves at home.

By steeping your tea for 20-30 seconds, you can remove somewhere between 80%-90% of the caffeine content. Simply pour out the caffeinated brew and re-infuse the tea as you normally would and voila! A nearly decaffeinated cup of tea.

Not so fast. Turns out this one isn't true. By steeping your tea for 30 seconds you'll remove almost a whopping 10% of the caffeine in it. This is good news for me, because I'm dead tired today and I thought my second infusion would have very little caffeine in it, but for those who can't have too much caffeine for whatever reason, this can be a most irritating thing.

Source

Iron Goddess of Mercy (Ti Kuan Yin)

Iron Goddess of Mercy. Pretty epic name for a tea, right? It's an oolong tea—one of the ten "China Famous Teas," actually, although what teas are among the ten seem to differ from source to source.

Anyhow, I bought this tea from the Oolong Tea House in Calgary about a year and a half ago. Had a cup tonight and decided it was a pretty awesome tea.

Many people say that an aged oolong can be a good thing. Normally, pu-erh tea is the only intentionally aged tea, but from what I understand some oolongs can change for the better with some aging as well. I'm not sure how I feel about this as I wasn't the tea connoisseur when I first bought this that I am today, but it certainly rocked my socks earlier tonight, while a year ago it didn't do much more than jiggle my shoelaces.



The liquor itself looks too light to have come from the leaves, yet here it is. It's actually a lot lighter than it looks in the picture. Seriously. But like good scotch, you can't judge its flavor by its color—if Iron Goddess of Mercy were an action movie (and it undoubtedly is), it would have Bruce Willis as John McClane playing the male lead, Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies) as the Iron Goddess (of NO mercy), and Slash on guitars because it would be such a badass movie that it would need its own guitars.

But back to the flavor. It's good. Great, even. Somewhat fruity, doesn't come on too strong, and there's a slight smokiness, but it's definitely in the background. Reminds me of myself sometimes. This one is closer to a black tea than a green tea, as there is no grassy taste whatsoever, although don't expect a strong cup of tea—it's no bold Ceylon or kick-in-the-ass Assam (that's where the first syllable of the word comes from, you know).

If you can get ahold of some of this, at least try it. At the very worst you can get on your high horse about how you hate one of China's most famous teas, and at the best? Orgasmic bliss.

Personally, I do both.

Just Relax, Man

Usually sometime around 11:00 AM at the office I like to stop slacking working for a moment and make a nice cup of tea. I have a cheap waterboiler on my desk and an entire shelf filled with various tea varieties (23) and some sweeteners (fireweed honey and agave nectar). It's actually quite excessive.

This morning I had a nice white tea. I won't mention what brand or kind just yet, as I'll be reviewing it later on, but it is very good for a bagged tea. Anyway, it instilled in me such a sense of calm and wellbeing that I knew there had to be some sort of chemical coursing through my brain.

So today's post is all about L-theanine. Sounds exciting, right?


L-theanine is a lovely molecule that acts as a neurotransmitter in the human brain, specifically one that makes you feel goooooooood. It is responsible for the calming effect that many people feel upon having a good cup of tea, even though this effect is contradictory to what one would expect in a beverage containing caffeine.

The Chinese have known about this effect for centuries, if not millennia. I'm not one to buy into something just because people have been repeating it for years, however, as that kind of reasoning pretty much stopped anyone from questioning Galen's and Hippocrates' methods for so long, and what gives Rush Limbaugh his staying power (volume and frequency of repetition are also factors with him).

So is there actual proof?

"L-theanine significantly increases activity in the alpha frequency band which indicates that it relaxes the mind without inducing drowsiness."

Read the whole study here

Voila. The reason you don't get the jitters after consuming tea (even a LOT of it) is because the L-theanine counteracts it by calming you down. As with most of the chemical constituents of tea, black tea has the least, and green tea the most, with higher quality teas having higher levels of it (but this doesn't mean black tea won't calm you). Japanese Gyokuro, in particular, has a lot of theanine in it. The plants are shaded a couple weeks before harvest, which causes the plants to produce more theanine.

So far there's nothing to indicate that consuming a lot of theanine is harmful, so drink to your heart's content.

Tea Bags

Most Americans are only familiar with tea bags, as they are convenient, don't require you to own a teapot or infuser, and come in pretty little boxes. I always liked the Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time box with the bear on it. The sleepy bear. Granted, bears tend to be more dangerous when they're tired, but that's besides the point.

The point here is that if your tea comes in a bag like the one to the right, you are drinking crappy tea.

Tea bags are filled not with whole leaf tea that produces a superior brew, but with what are called "fannings" and "dust." These are also known as "floor sweepings." Floor sweepings are the smallest particles of tea produced, and are often simply left over from whole leaf production. They tend to produce a cup of tea that has a deep color, but a really terrible flavor, often very bitter and astringent. Whereas with whole leaf tea this occurs when you steep your tea improperly, it almost always happens with tea bags.


The above are your typical teabag. Most mainstream bags you'll find in the store are like this. There are also circular bags, as in the picture on the right. The idea behind them is that a circular shape will allow the tea particles more exposure to water. I confess I have some of these in my office (loose leaf tea is too hard to deal with usually). If you MUST use this kind of tea bag, go with a more respected brand like Republic of Tea.

Finally, there are pyramidal tea bags. These are rather new and aren't actually too bad. They tend to have bigger pieces of tea leaf in them and seem to produce a better cup of tea. However, most are made of nylon, which doesn't biodegrade and is made from fossil fuels, so look for bags made from silk.

Of course, the best bagged tea of all is the kind you stick in a bag yourself. One can buy disposable tea infusers and simply load their tea for later use.

As a sidenote, bagged tisanes typically aren't inferior to the loose varieties, so you can still buy that awesome Sleepy Time tea with the bear on the box.

Caffeine in Tea

There's a lot of information about tea floating around out there. Some sites on the internet may proclaim that tea cures Alzheimer's Disease, friends may go on about green tea's ability to make one grow younger, news articles may purport that tea extracts cured a lab rat's dental plaque. And for even experienced tea drinkers, determining what's bullshit and what's factual can be a chore.


Here's one of the most common factoids about tea.

Black tea, due to its oxidation, has the highest levels of caffeine of all tea types. Oolong teas have roughly 2/3 the caffeine of black tea, green teas have roughly 1/3, and white teas have even less than green tea. As a rule of thumb, the less processed a tea is, the less caffeine it will have.

Many tea drinkers take this to be a given. I know I did until recently. But in actuality, it's not true.

"All teas have roughly similar caffeine contents, and one cannot rely on the belief that green tea has less caffeine, as asserted by many popular claims. One such claim is that degree of fermentation governs caffeine content, with green having 1/3 and oolong having 2/3 the caffeine content of black tea. This has been debunked repeatedly."

Read the whole article

Basically, caffeine content is dictated by the genetic makeup of the tea plant. Some varieties have more caffeine than others, and also various other factors (such as which leaves are plucked, the season, fertilizer, etc.), but oxidation of the leaves does not contribute very much caffeine to the tea, which runs contrary to popular belief.

There is some truth to this myth, however. Green tea is typically brewed with fewer leaves than black tea, which means a cup of black tea will often have more caffeine than a cup of green tea (but not always).

What tipped me off was white tea. I've heard that white tea has very little caffeine and that it has almost as much as black tea. I did some research and found out that I'd been living a lie -- the green tea I often drink a few hours before bed was indeed what we keeping me up. And now I can't turn to white tea, because it apparently has caffeine levels similar to green tea, if not somewhat higher.

The good news is that tea still has much less caffeine than coffee, and that the caffeine in tea is less likely to give you the jitters. The caffeine is chemically the same as that in coffee, but the polyphenols in tea bind to the caffeine which results in not all of it being released into your system at once. Tea also contains L-theanine, an amino acid that calms and relieves stress.

So if you're particularly sensitive to caffeine, you may want to buy decaffeinated tea instead of substituting green or white tea for black and oolong tea.

Tea and Sunburns

So a few months ago I went on a four-hour hike with a friend of mine. The sun was shining so she wore sunscreen (I didn't--I don't like it and I don't burn easy anyway).

We both have similar skin tones, and we obviously were in the sun for the same amount of time. She developed a sunburn, while I simply tanned a little. This puzzled me and I chalked it up to good genes, luck, and my overpowering will to be healthy.

A few days later I thought maybe my tea habits had something to do with it. I drink about a half gallon of green tea a day, plus black, rooibos, and the occasional oolong or white tea.

Lo and behold, drinking tea apparently protects your skin.


"There is good evidence in mice that tea (both green and black tea) provides significant protection against both the acute (sunburn) and long-term (skin cancer) effects of ultraviolet light."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1504069.stm


Mystery solved. Granted, I do live in Juneau, Alaska, which isn't known for its powerful sun, so don't prepare for a day at the beach just by drinking a gallon of tea. You'll not only probably get burned anyway, but you'll also have to pee a lot.

Still, I find it interesting to see tangible evidence for antioxidants I get from my tea. My not getting cancer just doesn't have the same effect, you know?

Herbals Teas & Tisanes

Many people enjoy "herbal tea," though this is a bit of a misnomer, as tea is a specific plant, Camellia sinensis. Herbal teas, more accurately, are called "tisanes," which is any kind of non-tea infusion of dried plant matter. Most do not confer the same health benefits as tea, although many have benefits of their own.

Many, such as peppermint, are often added to tea. Others such as rooibos and chamomile are typically made on their own. But like tea, care should be taken not to steep tisanes for too short or too long a time. Mint tisanes will become bitter and astringent like tea if oversteeped, while others like chamomile can become too strongly flavored to be pleasant.


One of the more popular ones, Rooibos, is often referred to as "red tea." Again, this is a misnomer, as Rooibos is an entirely different plant. As far as tisanes go, however, it's one of the more healthy ones. Rooibos has many of the same antioxidants as tea, as well as a few that tea doesn't have, although few studies have been performed on the efficacy of them.

If you drink tea for its health benefits, then you should stick to actual teas. There's nothing wrong with a good tisane, however, and if you enjoy the taste there's no reason not to have one.

Types of Tea

While professional tea-drinkers no doubt already know all the different varieties of tea, many newer tea drinkers are surprised to find there's more out there than green and black teas. All teas come from the same plant, but they can differ from one another tremendously due to how they're processed.

Most are familiar with black tea, which is the most processed of the types of tea. Leaves are typically picked, fried, and then oxidized. No one's really sure why people began oxidizing their tea, but it probably had to do with preservation, as black teas keep a lot longer than less processed teas.

Oolong teas are not quite as processed as black teas, but are moreso than green tea. Actually, oolong teas are very diverse--some taste almost like black tea, some almost like green tea. Oolong teas undergo the oxidation process like black teas, but the process is stopped somewhere in between.

Green teas are picked, steamed to remove enzymes that promote oxidation, dried, and then rolled. They tend to have a grassy flavor, and also tout some of the best health benefits of all teas.

White teas undergo the least processing. White tea comes from the buds of the tea plant before they develop large amounts of chlorophyll, and undergo immediate steaming to break down those oxidizing enzymes. White teas often have a faint sweetness to them, with none of the grassiness of green tea.



Of course this is all very basic. Even within tea types there can be major differences. A cup of Assam is very different from a Golden Yunnan, White Peony is very different from Silver Needle white tea, and there are marked differences between Japanese and Chinese green teas.

As a general guideline, the more processed a tea is, the higher temperature water you use and the longer you steep it, although with high quality, expensive teas this doesn't necessarily apply. Brewing the wrong way can result in a weak, tasteless cup of tea or a brew that is too astringent and bitter to stomach.

What's so great about tea?

Everything, which is why I need a blog to cover it all.


First, a little about myself: I am a twenty-two year old male living in Juneau, Alaska who has been an avid tea drinker for a good six years. I drink about a half-gallon of green tea a day, which stands in stark contrast to my pre-tea days of imbibing large amounts of diabetes-inducing soda. I'm glad those days are behind me.


Specifically, this blog will cover everything about tea, from the health benefits of teas to the relative quality of different brands of teas to my personal reviews. And because of my rather unique geographic location, I will also post several articles on homemade teas and tisanes (such as ones made from fireweed, Alaskan blueberries, Devil's Club, and other indigenous plants and berries).