An informative article about the history of many different kinds of tea and the benefits of drinking green tea:
“Tea was first drunk in China and next in India. It was expansion of trade and reduction in import tax in 1746 that gave birth to the famous British tea at five o’clock tradition.
While categorizing, there are five varieties of Chinese tea. Most popular within China is green tea, which retrains its original colour and whose leaves are heated to prevent fermentation or oil effusion in boiling water. The most famous green tea are Longjin (Dragon well), Miffing and Biluochun.
Black tea in China is called hong cha-red tea. Its leaves are fermented before being heated and it contains oils that dissolve in hot water, giving it its darker colour. This kind of tea making has only been popular in China since the 17th century. The finest of hong cha are Qihong, Dianhong, Suhong Chuanhong and Huhong.
The third category of tea is unique to China and has no equivalent in any other country. It is oolong tea, which is partially fermented and occupies an intermediate position between green and black tea. Oolong specialists are all situated in China’s southern provinces. The most famous black tea is Iron Guanyin.
Compressed tea produced in briquettes is convenient for storage and shipping. Often referred to as black, it is not the same as the black tea drunk in Europe. It is produced mainly in Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces.
Aromatized tea is a mixture of tea-leaves and flowers, although tea made exclusively from flowers is no rarity. Jasmine tea is most popular in northern China, where it is believed that aromatized tea improves the digestion through helping break down fats.
In Chinese restaurants around the world, tea is served before anything else, regardless of whether or not it has been ordered. And is very often free of charge. Dinners order oily and spicy dishes without fear of gastric repercussions, as a drink of green tea ensures easy digestion.
To Chinese people, tea is like a faithful and beloved wife who commands complete loyalty. Virtually every citizen of the Celestial Kingdom has their favourite tea from which they seldom stray.
There is a Chinese saying: It is better to live three days without salt than one day without tea.
Tea is considered a remedy for many diseases with traditional Chinese medicine. Practitioners insist that bitter tea relieves inflammation, prevents upset stomachs, whets the appetites, and restores good spirits. Tea is rich in Vitamin C, which combats cholesterol, arteriosclerosis and hypertension. The Vitamin B in tea helps to clean blood-vessel walls and soften capillaries, and its other Vitamins prevent formation of blood pigmentation and melanoma.
Another tea ingredient-tannin- soaks up melanin and flushes it out of the body, keeping the skin soft and health looking. Tea also contains alkaline minerals that decompose fats and help digestion, which means regular tea drinking is an effective method of weight control. Finally, the caffeine in tea stimulates the metabolism and produces insulin, which is why many diabetics drink it as a therapeutic agent.”
DAAN carries many types of tea.
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