I would like to make a case for green tea today. In today’s world of Vitamixes and exotic super-food smoothies, a cup of green tea is a simple, affordable and accessible source of drinkable nourishment.
The Japanese tea ceremony is a beautiful one. Also called chanoyu, it traces its origins in Zen Buddhism. Seeking to purify the mind and experience oneness with nature, the ceremony involves carefully choreographed steps, using special ceramics and performed in an intimate space, designed to hold no more than four to five people. The tea-room is usually modeled after a hermit’s hut and surrounded by a Zen garden; intended to give the participants, a space to retreat from the everyday world.
Although, we may not be able to regularly participate in elaborate ceremonies in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, taking the time to brew and drink green tea in a mindful way brings in a moment of contemplation and beauty into an ordinary day. Moreover, brewing the tea carefully, extracts more antioxidants from it and brings out its maximum healing potential.
The healing powers of green tea have been known in Asia for thousands of years and in recent times, all over the world. Green tea has been widely researched for its role in preventing and treating chronic medical conditions such as arthritis, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The antioxidants in green tea have wonderful little compounds called catechins, the most angelic among them, epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, which is at the heart of green tea’s medicinal fame. Recent studies indicate that EGCG may play a strong role in keeping dementia and Alzheimer’s disease at bay. The compound not only provides neurons with strong protection against the cognitive and memory impairments, but also encourages the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus (seat of memory and learning) region of casino online the brain, essentially reversing the disease.
The EGCG content of your cup of tea totally depends on how you brew your tea. Learning to brew tea with care is key; It not only helps in releasing the most antioxidants from tea leaves, but also gently nudges to you savor the mindfulness and serenity that is at the center of tea. Here is how you do it, both for medicinal and spiritual benefits.
- Use good quality loose green tea leaves rather than bagged tea to release more antioxidants into your cup. However, if you have to use tea bags for convenience, make sure that the bag is completely immersed in the hot water.
- Brew green tea in boiling water to extract higher polyphenol content from the leaves. Tea steeped in a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade or higher is reported to release more antioxidants than tea brewed at lower temperatures.
- Allow tea to steep for at least for two minutes and up to five minutes to release the most polyphenols from it. The levels of three polyphenols in green tea called catechins, theaflavins, and thearubigins increase directly in proportion to steeping time.
- Add lemon juice to green tea to increase its health benefits. Antioxidants in green tea that don”t survive the digestive process have a better chance of doing so with the addition of a citrus juice. Purdue researchers report that lemon juice, and other citrus juices like orange, lime, and grapefruit juices help in optimizing the antioxidant power of green tea.
- Use filtered water to bring out the best taste of tea. Drink your green tea as soon as it is prepared to maximize its benefits. That is, don’t microwave it because your tea cooled down.
- You may not have a tea-room, but you can allocate a quiet spot near a window with a view of a garden to savor your cup.
- Hold the cup of green tea in both your hands. Savor its warmth and linger in a place of contentment where your thoughts and feelings gently reveal themselves to you, one by one.
The great tea master Sen No Rikyu said, “The Way of Tea is naught but this: first you boil water, then you make the tea and drink it.”
That to me is the simple wonder that is green tea.
Sources:
Zen Stories of the Samurai
The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Japanese Tea Ceremony
Life Extension; How Green Tea Protects Against Alzheimer’s Disease
Purdue University; Citrus juice, vitamin C give staying power to green tea antioxidants
The World’s Healthiest Foods; Can you still benefit from canned or bottled green tea or does green tea need to be freshly steeped?
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture; Factors affecting the levels of catechins and caffeine in tea beverage: estimated daily intakes and antioxidant activity
Dr. Weil; How to Boost Green Tea Benefits
