Health

Tea drinkers live longer

Drinking tea at least three times a week is linked with a longer and healthier life, according to a study published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

Health

Tap or bottled? Water composition impacts health benefits of tea

Here's to sipping a cupful of health: Green tea steeped in bottled water has a more bitter taste, but it has more antioxidants than tea brewed using tap water, according to new Cornell University food science research published ...

Cardiology

Can a daily cup of tea do a heart good?

The latest study on the coffee alternative suggests at least a cup a day may help your body cling to heart-helping "good cholesterol" as you age.

Health

What is kombucha and how do the health claims stack up?

The drink kombucha was previously only popular in hipster cafes, but is now vying for space on the supermarket shelves. Many claims are made about the health benefits of drinking kombucha, but what does the science say?

Overweight & Obesity

Do 'skinny teas' actually boost weight loss?

Weight loss teas are becoming common, with advertisements claiming dramatic results often appearing online. Do the big promises match the results, or do they only match the price tag?

Health

Gung ho for green tea

(HealthDay)—Whether to relax, warm up or even curb your appetite, there's nothing quite like sipping a soothing cup of tea.

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Black tea

Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties. All four varieties are made from leaves of Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the species are used, the small-leaved Chinese variety plant (C. sinensis sinensis), also used for green and white teas, and the large-leaved Assamese plant (C. sinensis assamica), which was traditionally only used for black tea, although in recent years some green has been produced.

In Chinese and Chinese influenced languages, black tea is known as "crimson tea" (紅茶, Mandarin Chinese hóngchá; Japanese kōcha; Korean hongcha), perhaps a more accurate description of the colour of the liquid. The name black tea, however, could alternatively refer to the colour of the oxidized leaves. In Chinese, "black tea" is a commonly used classification for post-fermented teas, such as Pu-erh tea. However, in the Western world, "red tea" more commonly refers to rooibos, a South African tisane.

While green tea usually loses its flavor within a year, black tea retains its flavour for several years. For this reason, it has long been an article of trade, and compressed bricks of black tea even served as a form of de facto currency in Mongolia, Tibet, and Siberia into the 19th century. It was known since the Tang Dynasty that black tea steeped in hot water could also serve as a passable cloth dye for the lower classes that could not afford the better quality clothing colours of the time.[citation needed] However, far from being a mark of shame, the "brown star" mark of the dyeing process was seen as much better than plain cloth and held some importance as a mark of the lower merchant classes through the Ming Dynasty.[citation needed] The tea originally imported to Europe was either green or semi-oxidized. Only in the 19th century did black tea surpass green in popularity.[citation needed] Although green tea has recently seen a revival due to its purported health benefits, black tea still accounts for over ninety percent of all tea sold in the West.

The expression "black tea" is also used to describe a cup of tea without milk ("served black"), similar to coffee served without milk or cream.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA