Tea Digest – an overview of tea in the news
If the amount of press coverage is anything to go by, then tea is experiencing an enormous resurgence at the moment. From scientific publications on its health benefits to the new fashion of visiting teahouses to confessionals of rock and pop stars being tea drinkers: tea is popping up everywhere!
To help you keep up with all the news, we’ve decided to write a regular “news digest” on what’s happening in the tea world. We want this digest to serve as a brief summary, as a gateway to the full articles and as a starting point to do your own research.
This first digest covers stories we’ve come across in the last few months, covering subjects from tea & health to the concept of “tea – the new wine”!
Tea & Health
Although used for millenia in Chinese medicine, the leaf of the tea plant (camellia sinensis) has been largely ignored by the western medical world following its paradigm of allopathic medicine until very recently. Now, a host of medical research results are being published, proving tea to be a powerful drink with benefits ranging from reducing the risk of heart attack and improving dental health to boosting exercise endurance.
A long-term study conducted on a large group of japanese adults indicates that daily consumption of green tea lowers the risk of heart disease by 20 – 30%. Although this study revealed no evidence that drinking tea prevents cancer, other studies indicate that tea decreases the risk of cancer but results of the different studies are often conflicting. The motivation for most of this research is the fact that tea contains a large amount of polyphenols called catechins, a powerful antioxidant, that can neutralize free radicals. The catechins in tea are believed to shrink cancerous tumors.
A recently published study from Slovenia indicates that these catechins also have antibacterial properties that could potentially serve as an alternative to current clinical drugs with their side effects.
In another study, researchers at the Biological Sciences Laboratories of Kao Corp., Tochigi, Japan showed that green tea extract boosted exercise endurance by 8 to 24% by increasing the body’s ability to burn lipids.
One of the biggest stories in the news during the past 2 weeks is based on the findings of a study conducted in Germany. Cardiologists and scientists from the Charité Hospital in Berlin published research results indicating that adding milk to your tea blocks the positive effects of tea catechins. Responsible for this effect is a group of proteins called caseins, that decrease the level of catechins in tea. (Click here to read the full publication.)
Personally, I’m a little surprised that this study gained so much attention. It was a VERY small study with only 16 patients that were tested 3 times; compare that with the japanese study on heart disease above where 40.000 patients were observed for 11 years! But then, black tea (the only tea that is commonly drunk with milk) is by far the most popular tea in western countries and interest in research concerning black tea is generally higher than for green tea.
Another story that was in the news a while ago corrects an old urban myth: the one that tea dehydrates. A team around Dr Carrie Ruxton at Kings College London studied the health effects of tea. Dr Ruxton states that “drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it’s got two things going for it.” The effect of dehydration is attributed to high doses of caffeine. But with the caffeine levels found in tea, even a very strong cup of tea will result in a net fluid gain.
Are tea & teahouses the next big thing?
In the U.S., tea shops and teahouses (often in the watered-down form of trendier tea-bars) are popping up everywhere. There seems to be a renaissance of tea, largely attributed to health consciousness.
Tea sales are predicted to almost double in just five years and it sounds as if cafes have to come up with good strategies not to lose a big part of their market to this new trend.
A large portion of this tea market has to do with flavoured teas and tea-based health beverages. The market is so hot, that even Coca-Cola is jumping on the bandwagon!
But the interest is not only focussed on lower grade teas. Some other news items indicate an increased demand for high quality and rare teas. One article even compared the new interest in rare teas to the enthusiasm for fine wines in the 1990s. This development is more interesting to us since our focus is on offering a select range of the best quality teas.
We don’t know whether teahouses will be the “next big thing” (or even care, really), but we are happy that this amazing drink is finally getting the recognition it deserves!
Pop stars & tea – a few oddities to finish with
With rock & pop stars being the idols of this generation, their influence on trends and fashion is enormous. We recently stumbled across some articles where tea (no, not beer or drugs!) was quoted as the main source of inspiration. British indie rockers Kaiser Chiefs confessed that drinking tea played a huge part in making their new album and the singer of last year’s biggest newcomers Arctic Monkeys claims that he spent his birthday party sipping tea and eating cake.
Even in Christchurch, rock stars seem to indulge in this new drug. At the concert of “Tenacious D” (actor/musician Jack Black’s rock comedy duo) a week back or so, Jack Black excused himself at the start of the show, stating he needed to “drink a lot more tea and do some yoga” while the fabulous opening band – Christchurch’s own “Black Tear” – was warming up the masses.
Reading about tea in the world news so frequently is a great thing! It reassures us that there is a growing interest in our favourite beverage. It’s great to read about all the healthy properties of tea, to know that what we offer promotes health and well-being, and to read about the uprising of tea culture. But there’s one thing most of the articles haven’t mentioned, in my opinion the most important reason that tea has had such a long-lasting tradition: the flavour. Health benefits are a very welcome bonus, but the main reason we are devoted to tea is its complex nature, delicacy and diversity of flavour!
So, the next time you sip on a cup of your favourite tea, remember that you’re not only doing your body a favour – you’re also on the cutting edge of a new trend!
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