What About the Green Tea Bag ?
Green tea is here to stay!
But is it better to use a green tea bag, or to use loose leaves? Well, that is really undebatable - as any tea purist will tell you, loose leaves are far better than bags!
What are you really getting in a tea bag?
Generally speaking, tea bags are more costly as they take more work to produce. When tea leaves are chopped into tiny pieces for bagging, they are exposed to more oxidization which means that they loose freshness quicker.
Sometimes the poorer quality leaves are used just for this reason.
Using tea bags made of paper means that you are adding that to your brew and not experiencing the true indiluted flavor of leaves. Bagged tea has a higher caffeine content due to the oxidization. This can give the tea a more bitter taste.
If you are just beginning to try out green tea, a great way to get started is with a sampler pack. Various stores sell these and you can then experience different flavors and varieties. This allows you to decide which one you like the most.
Dermatologists recommend green tea bags for reducing the fluid build-up that causes under eye circles or bags. They suggest that you brew 2 bags, let them cool and use them as a cold compress for 10 minutes.
It is thought that you should buy loose leaves and place these in an unbleached tea bag. You will benefit from the higher quality tea which contains more catechin (EGCG) full of antioxidants.
Brewing a perfect cup of tea isn't as easy as it may look - even using a tea bag!
Follow these steps for the best possible result
Buy good quality bags, preferably from a speciality store.
Use 1 tea bag per cup.
After boiling water, allow it to stand for 3 minutes so that it cools down just a little.
Pour the water over the tea bag and allow it to steep for 3 minutes.
Remove the bag.
Allow tea to stand for 3 more minutes before drinking.
It is really important not to overbrew the tea or the powerful polyphenols that are so tremendously beneficial to our health, may be destroyed, as well as the tea getting a slightly 'grassy' taste.
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