Thursday tea time

I enjoy all types of tea but my one true tea love has to be green tea. Green tea with lemon, green tea with ginger, jasmine green tea, sencha, matcha, I don't really care - any green tea will do as long as it's not Lipton. I picked up a particularly amazing first harvest genmaicha from a local Australian tea house (brewery? I'm not sure what you call a tea farm?), Perfect South. Genmaicha aka popcorn tea has a green tea base with the added bonus of roasted rice kernels which give it an almost nutty flavour. It's fairly mild tasting so a good starting point if you're not super keen on a pot of the green stuff.

Bet you didn't know that green tea and black tea actually come from the same plant, green tea is just harvested at a younger age. And they are processed in different ways to create two types of tea - black tea is fermented while green tea is not so it retains more nutritional goodness. Because it's less 'processed' green tea is chock full of catechin polyphenols which contain powerful antioxidants so aside from being delicious there are heaps of health benefits* to downing a mug or two or five:

1. Speeds up your metabolism apparently - honestly can't say I've seen any benefits to my waistline

2. Apply it topically to sooth sunburn (you can also do this with camomile)

3. Lowers the risk of various cancers

4. Improves cardiovascular health
5. Keeps your pearly whites pearly white - green tea is a natural source of fluoride
6. Catechin can kill some bacteria that causes mild food poisoning and toxins produced by the bacteria

It doesn't have as much caffeine as a coffee but I probably wouldn't be knocking back a mug just before bed especially if you're sensitive to caffeine. 

*Tea research is still in early stages, these are reported benefits. Mostly I just like drinking tea health benefits or not