Tea is the second most popular liquid in the world, following water closely. Many consume it alone, while others drink it with any combination of thick, full creamed milk, unsweetened milk, sugar, honey, lemon, or just plain iced. Really the only wrong way is drinking overly hot tea; don’t forget to let it cool down!
So tea lovers, listen up. There is a significant stack of healthy evidence for your intense love of tea. In addition to the calming effect of a good, warm tea on a cold winter’s day, tea has been shown to provide several benefits for the body.
Types Of Hot Tea
First, we begin with types of tea. If you are familiar with tea, you’ll know that it’s available in an intimidatingly large variety. Going to browse types of tea to purchase in a supermarket is not exactly a walk in the park. If you’re not careful, you will end up buying more than one type – not such a bad idea.
Beginning with colors, there is the green tea, white tea, black tea, and most likely somewhere in the world, burgundy-orange tea. Zooming in on the flavors, you’ll find herbal tea, ginger root tea, jasmine tea, sage tea, etc.
All these types of tea (except herbal tea) are brewed from the Camellia Sinensis leaves. Here is a breakdown of the most popular teas in the world:
- Green tea: This is made from picking and heating green leaves and then steeping them to create tea.
- White tea: This is made by plucking young green leaves that are still budding and have white hairs on them, drying them, and brewing them into tea.
- Yellow tea: The tea leaves are left to whither after they have been plucked, giving them a yellowish color. They are then dried and brewed into tea.
- Black tea: The leaves used for black tea preparation are wilted, crushed, and oxidized.
- Oolong tea: The leaves used for Oolong tea are wilted, crushed, and partially oxidized.
- Post-fermented tea: This is made from fermented green tea.
- Herbal tea: Herbal tea is made by infusing herbs, spices, flowers, and other parts of plants into tea bags. They are mostly for health purposes.
Health Benefits of Drinking Hot Tea
Now that we’ve covered a basic overview of tea, let’s take a look at some of the health benefits that studies suggest.
Tea helps prevent diseases:
Tea contains powerful antioxidants that perform specific functions in the body. Here are a few of the diseases that hot tea helps prevent;
- Helps prevent some cancer types: Black tea has been demonstrated to help reduce the risk of dying from cancer by 21%. A cup of green tea daily helps reduce the risk of endometrial cancer to 11%.
- Helps reduce heart disease risk: 3 cups of green tea daily can reduce the risk of developing heart disease by 26%.
- Improve brain health: Tea might reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease, according to one study.
- Reduce the risk of getting type 2 diabetes: 4 cups of tea daily will reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 10%.
Hot tea might prevent glaucoma:
Glaucoma is a dangerous eye condition with the potential to lead to an even more dangerous condition of complete, irreversible blindness. A survey was conducted with about 1600 participants. From the survey, it was observed that people who drank at least a cup of hot tea daily were 74% less likely to have glaucoma.
Hot tea can enhance your mood:
If you drink a lot of tea, you can personally attest to having a better mood after each cup of goodness, and research backs that up. A study suggests that hot tea can cause a 30% reduction in the risk of depression. The main components of tea; caffeine, polyphenols, and theanine have been linked to the modulation of dopamine (which is the mood stimulator in the human brain). More research is still being conducted to confirm the effect of tea on the human mood. However, the actual process alone of slowing down to make tea and drink it can have a calming effect in an otherwise hectic day.
Hot tea can help regulate your body temperature:
Notice how hot tea in cold weather will have you sweating in no time? When the hot tea heats your stomach with its temperature sensors, it can help regulate your response to external temperature. A study has shown that drinking hot tea will curb shivering for about 10 minutes. No surprise there.
Hot tea can improve your brain health:
Hot tea can help boost your cognitive reasoning, keeping your brain in top condition. According to research, the green tea leaf helps to improve the working memory of the brain.
Hot tea can prevent tooth decay:
Black tea has been demonstrated to contain some enzyme-rich compounds which prevent bacteria from forming in the cavity of the tooth. By regularly consuming black tea, you can help prevent tooth decay.
Hot tea can improve digestion:
Tea has been known to reduce bloating of the stomach, relieve gas and stop constipation. Herbal tea and green tea have some special constituents that benefit your gastrointestinal health. Herbal tea also handles digestion problems, supplying more fluid to the system and relieving substances that might cause indigestion. Additionally, herbal tea can help reduce cramps, menstrual pain, menopause symptoms, and stomach aches in general.
Hot tea strengthens the immune system:
Some powerful antioxidants are present in tea, and these substances can boost the immune system to help you handle illnesses like the flu and common cold.
Hot tea can relieve stress and anxiety:
Tea has a naturally calming effect that can curb anxiety. A cup of tea just before a presentation, or in the middle of a brainstorming project can do wonders for your anxiety level, instantly relieving stress and anxiety.
Summary:
Tea has a lot of health benefits. If you are unsure about the particular type of tea to purchase, visit a reliable tea or coffee shop and talk to a pro.
At K Brew, you will find baristas passionate about our tea, and ready to help you make the right decision. We brew only organic, high-quality teas, made with love and experience. We look forward to serving you!