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Neither taste nor benefit: 5 mistakes that spoil tea
Tea drinking is not such a simple matter as it seems at first glance. Let’s try to figure out exactly how you shouldn’t drink tea in order to get the maximum taste and benefit from the drink.
Representative of the Lipetsk Rosinka plant, manufacturer and distributor of Nestea cold tea in Russia
Mistake 1: brewing tea with the wrong temperature
How does an ordinary person make tea for themselves? Pours tea leaves or opens a tea bag and pours boiling water from a freshly boiled teapot into a cup. He waits for about five minutes and in the end he gets not a tasty healthy drink, but something bitter, tart, or, conversely, tasteless.
Real tea brewed according to all the rules contains dozens of flavor nuances: it is delicate, sweetish, light, fresh. And in order to get the true taste, it is important to brew each type of tea correctly. By pouring boiling water over the tea leaves, you not only harm the taste, but also negate all the benefits of tea: the leaves simply lose important essential oils and other useful substances.
Each type of tea has its own nuances, but general recommendations are as follows:
95–100 ℃ – black tea, pu-erh, oolong
70–85 ℃ – green and white tea
The temperature depends on the fermentation of the tea (the more it is, the higher the degree of water) and the type of brewing (large sheets should be brewed with hotter water). Tea bags usually have the smallest leaves, so keep the temperature lower. Even black tea bags are not recommended to be poured with fresh boiling water, the water should be allowed to cool down at least a couple of degrees. And boiling water will simply kill green tea: you need to fill it with water no warmer than 80 ℃. By the way, green tea is also very sensitive to water quality. Tap water kills almost all of its benefits.
Do not observe the brewing time
When the tea is brewed, the leaves give essential oils, vitamins and nutrients to the water. If you leave the tea leaves for a long time, the processes will continue, and over time, essential oils and tea polyphenols will oxidize, amino acids and vitamins will be destroyed. As a result, you will not only lose all the benefits, but also get a tasteless, cloudy drink without aroma, which has nothing to do with good tea.
The longer the tea is infused, the more caffeine you get in the drink. There is a lot of caffeine in tea leaves, but it is not easily extracted (leaves are reluctant to give it to water, – approx. ed.), therefore freshly brewed tea has a tonic effect on the nervous system. If tea is infused for a long time, then the caffeine in the drink accumulates so much that it begins to have an exciting effect and can seriously worsen the state of health.
Add milk to tea
This information upsets the adherents of the English tradition of tea drinking, but the fact is that the milk protein casein binds the tannins contained in tea, which are responsible for the tonic effect. And as a result, the drink turns out to be less invigorating. In addition, milk enhances the diuretic properties of tea.
Casein also has a negative effect on antioxidants, flavonoids and other beneficial components of the tea leaf. So by adding milk to your tea, you at least negate all its benefits. And recent studies have shown that the milk in tea can even harm your body: such a drink is poorly absorbed and can lead to at least an upset stomach, and at most to kidney stones.
Drink tea on an empty stomach
Even the ancient Chinese said that tea should not be drunk “on an empty heart.” They referred to this drink as cooling and believed that by ignoring this prohibition, you cool the stomach and spleen, and this is like “the penetration of a wolf into the house.”
Modern doctors do not mention wolves, but they agree with the Chinese sages: drinking tea on an empty stomach is not worth it. The fact is that the tea leaf contains tannins and theophylline, which cause an increased secretion of gastric juice and enzymes, thereby irritating the stomach. For people who have problems with the gastrointestinal tract, signs of peptic ulcer disease or increased acidity in the stomach, tea on an empty stomach is definitely harmful.
Brew the same tea many times
You’ve probably heard that tea can be brewed several times, and each infusion will only taste better and benefit more. In general, this is true, but there are important nuances.
Loose tea can indeed be brewed several times. The so-called multiple infusion of the tea leaf is the norm in Chinese and Japanese tea traditions. But tea varieties with thick, whole leaves (oolong tea, green tea) are suitable for this method. If the tea leaf is curled or curled (as in pressed pu-erh tea and tightly rolled green tea), it is also better to brew it several times to get the most out of the drink.
If we are talking about small-leaf tea, black tea (with the exception of whole-leaf tea) or finely chopped leaves (namely, they are packed in bags), then they should not be brewed more than once: all essential oils, amino acids and vitamins such tea gives immediately. Then there will be a minimum of benefits in the drink, and the taste will definitely not get better.
General recommendations are: green и white tea can be brewed 3-4 times, most varieties black tea – no more than 2 times, oolongs – from 4 to 9 times, puerh – 5 to 10 times. Of course, these are only approximate figures, and you need to take into account the characteristics of the variety of each type of tea.