Food Spotlight: TEA

Tea is a pretty simple drink in principle. It is flavored water essentially. There are many flavored water drinks out there…and tea is a much better alternative to drink than mixes, soda, or even fruit juice. (Juice while healthy, can have a ton of sugar and calories, so juice should be drunk in small single serving amounts)

Many people don’t think they are a “tea person”. This is a misconception. There are literally thousands of flavors of tea. You can’t dislike them all. (and you may even love a few)

Black tea, Compressed tea, Oolong, Green, Yellow, White and herbal teas are the basic types of tea you can get. Tea leaves all come from the same plant (excluding herbal tea) and depending on the drying, fermenting and processing; a tea leaf can become any one of those different types.

Green, yellow and white teas generally have a lighter, fresher taste and black teas have a more nutty/earthy taste. Herbs, spices and fruits add another dimension of taste to tea, adding a sweet, nutty, fruity, flowery, cooling or spicy effect. The best thing to do is experiment to find a tea that you like.

Some of my favorite teas:

Earl grey: This is generally a bitter black tea with a citrus flavor in it from added bergamot. It is great to drink for breakfast as it has some caffeine and the citrus flavor will wake you up just as much.

Jasmine: This tea has a sweet, subtle flower taste. It’s very fragrant and makes a great relaxing tea.

Rooibos: This is an herb that comes from Africa. It’s also called red tea and has a nice bright color. Rooibos tea has a sweet, nutty flavor and is great by itself or mixed with other herbs.

Chamomile: This tea is very refreshing and also has some anti-inflammatory and sleep inducing effects, so it’s good to drink if you have a headache or want a good nights sleep.

Mint: Peppermint + spearmint and other mints make great tea. It tastes…minty? Very refreshing and helps out with bad breath and upset stomach.

Genmai Cha: This is a Japanese tea with small puffed rice bits in it. For such a lightly colored tea the flavor is very strong and unique enough that I cannot describe it. I can say that the first time I had some it was a surprising/shocking experience.

Brewing tea with 8 oz of water

Tea	White	Green	Oolong	Rooibos	Mate	Herbal
Amount (Tbsp)	1.5	1	1	1.5	1	1.5
Water Tempurature (F)	175	175	195	208	195	208
Brew Time (minutes)	1	3	3	8	8	5

To make iced tea use twice the amount of tea leaves and a longer brewing time. The boiling point of water at standard human livable air pressure is 212 °F …If you brew tea with boiling water you will over cook it.