“Better to be deprived of food for three days than tea for one..”

- an ancient Chinese proverb

Green Tea, thats my favorite health drink and This was the place where my love for this tea started. Till date, I manage to drink a glass of fresh iced tea everyday! To be honest, I was never a big fan of either tea or coffee when I was back in India, but now.. I must say, am hooked to this tea..

…and when Skinny gourment announced her little tea party (Thanks to Dining Hall!), I was more than elated to write an exclusive post on my love for freshly brewed, sweetened Iced Green Tea!

first a little history….

China is known as the homeland of tea. India and China are probably the first countries to cultivate tea. It is believed that tea shrubs existed in China as early as 5000-6000 years ago. Once when Emperor Shen Nung was sitting under a camellia tree, a few leaves accidentally fell into a cauldron of boiling water. The resulting fragrance tempted the Emperor to sip the brew. This is believed to be the beginning of Chinese tea culture.

Basically there are three types of tea – black, oolong and green tea. Green tea today has become very popular worldwide. Made from the dried leaves of the camellia sinensis plant, green tea came from China between 4000-5000 years ago. In oriental countries green tea has been used for many centuries for its therapeutic and medicinal qualities. People in China and Japan have known the positive aspects green tea brings to our health for centuries and Asians on an average drink 1-2 cups per day as a cleanser for the body. The global consumption of tea is about 3 billion kilos annually with India alone accounting for the largest contribution (about 30%).

- Source

The use of green tea as a beverage dates back to 3000 BC. Green tea is believed to have several wide ranging health benefits now supported by recent research. There are four primary polyphenols in green tea and they are often collectively referred to as catechins. Powerful antioxidants, catechins have been shown in recent studies to fight viruses, slow aging and have a beneficial effect on health. The principal catechin is EGCG whose composition in green tea is believed to be 100 times more potent than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E as an antioxidant.

The production of free radicals is the body in the main cause of many ‘lifestyle’ diseases like diabetes, cataract, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and skin cancer. The antioxidants in green tea fight these free radicals and therefore these diseases.

To know more about health benefits of Green Tea, click here.

Do I need any more reasons to get addicted to this natural wonder!..and here is the recipe of my version of making Iced Green Tea..(sorry no pic this time!!)

1 quart filtered water
4 standard green tea bags
Sugar to taste
1 lemon, squeezed

1. Bring the water to a boil in a teakettle. Put tea leaves in a deep, heatproof bowl or large teapot. As soon as the water begins to boil, remove from heat and cool to the optimum room temperature.

2. Pour over tea leaves, stir, and let stand 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Strain liquid through a fine wire-mesh sieve or coffee filter into a pitcher. Sweeten to taste before cooling. If you’re not sweetening the tea, cool completely and serve over ice with sweeteners, lemon and mint passed separately. Enjoi!!

Recipe Marathon: Day 10 - Menu:
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Srivalli
Bhags
Arundati
Lakshmi
Divya Vikram
Ranji
Swati
Dhivya
Raaga

Have a great Monday ahead…:D

Siri

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Beverages/Drinks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.