The Tea Revolution

I thought while I was on a tea kick I would break down some really useful information when it comes to tea! I'll answer questions like the difference between the tea colors, steeping times, and useful recipes and ways to incorporate this trendy yet ancient brew that's Oh-So-Good for you.

The difference between each tea is how it's harvested and made, so the flavors, benefits, and how to steep it can be different for all of them! Of course, boiling water with a drop of honey is a quick and convenient way to enjoy your cup, but here's some useful information behind it all.

Some teas (particularly whites, greens, and blacks) have a bit of sensitivity to temperature, so the amount of steeping you do can depend heavily on how bitter the flavor comes out. With all tea, if you desire a stronger flavor, simply add more tea instead of lengthening the steeping time.

1. White Tea

• How it's made: White Tea comes from the bud of the plant rather than the leaf and is unfermented. The buds are withered (or steamed) and air dried, and are the least processed of any tea.
• Flavor: Light, subtle taste that's slightly sweet.
• Brew: Ideally 175 degree water will allow for white tea to steep to perfection in 1-4 minutes. Some white teas are sensitive to temperature, so if you find your tea a bit bitter tasting just shorten the steeping time.
• The Benefits: Research is starting to suggest white tea may prevent certain forms of cancer, but more immediately white tea's subtle crisp benefits are geared towards helping the skin and reducing fine lines and wrinkles. According to Wild Wisdom, white tea is also chock full of antioxidants and offers a high ORAC value.
• Suggestion: So, you've steeped yourself a nice hot cup of tea, but it's too hot to drink! Allowing a few moments for the tea bag to cool, full leaf tea that's moist and opened and good for the skin--Hmm.. Treat yourself to a quick spa treatment! Rest it on your eyelid for a few moments and switch to the other eye. Or, if you like strong flavors and used two bags in one cup, you have one for each eye! Might as well grab all the benefits you can from something you're about to toss anyways.
• Our Favorite: We're currently really hooked on the White Tangerine Tea. It's fruity, and light and good with dinner or dessert.

2. Green Tea

• How it's made: Green tea is the least processed of any tea Leaf, to clarify (as white tea is the least processed but is not made entirely of the leaf), and is withered, steamed, then rolled and dried.
• Flavor: Because it is the least processed leaf, green tea gives a fresh flavor closest to the taste of the leaf itself. It can be considered bitter for some, but I've never had a good quality green tea that a bit of honey or splenda hasn't solved any bitter flavors. A bonus is that honey is also good for you! Some people find green tea a weak flavor, but I disagree entirely.
• Brew: Ideally, at 175 degrees 1 minute is all green tea needs to infuse entirely into a cup of water. For temperatures less than that, another minute or so could be added, but green tea is one of those sensitive types I talked about earlier that turn bitter when left exposed too long. If you leave it too long (as I often do...), as I stated before, I've never had a bitter edge that honey or sugar hasn't cured in an instant.
• The Benefits: We've all heard about green tea's fantastic antioxidant compounds, most notably EGCG, and how it's cancer-preventative, but it doesn't stop there. It lowers cholesterol, regulates blood sugar levels, helps digestion and can even help with cavities and aging.
• Suggestion: I mentioned earlier about how fantastic our Orange Chocolate Green Tea is, and since this tea is not short on flavor, it is a wonderful drink to have with desserts! Green tea is a wonderful transition drink from a strong meal to a sweet dessert.
• Our Favorite: I'd be lying if my personal favorite wasn't the one I wrote a whole post about... but I really think that a great suggestion for breakfast is a healthier alternative to Earl Grey: GREEN Earl Grey tea.

Oolong Tea

• How it's made: Fresh Camellia leaves are shaken to bruise the edges, partially fermented, and dried. It's also referred to as Wu-long tea.
• Flavor: The intensity is a balance between the unfermented green and the fired black teas with a smoky floral flavor.
• Brew: A golden brown hue is what you'll get when steeped at 195 degrees for 3 minutes. Oolong tea, because it's fermented partially, is not as sensitive to prolonged water exposure as the other two so the chances of the flavor being bitter aren't present.
• The Benefits: Skin and teeth, digestion, metabolism, and weight loss are all attributed to Oolong tea.
• Suggestion: The flowery shade that this tea gives off makes a simple treat for cold nights, but this tea tastes just as wonderful iced and sweetened for summer evenings. It seems you just can't go wrong with Oolong tea, since there's plenty of benefits without the delicacy and potential of oversteeping.
• Our Favorite: Happens to be the only Oolong tea we offer, Dragon Eye.

Black Tea

• How it's made: Black tea is fully fermented. Fresh Camellia leaves are withered, rolled, fermented, and fired.
• Flavor: Because it is fully fermented it is the most intense in flavor, and it is also the easiest to manipulate flavor wise. Different flavors and flowers are easily incorporated and black tea works well with variety.
• Brew: 195-205 degrees, ideally, will steep 2-3 minutes. Some black teas may turn bitter if steeped too long, so I'll encourage more tea being added instead of more steep time. The difference between the way normal Lipton black tea is handled and ours is that our tea is full leaf instead of put through a powdering process.
• The Benefits: Black tea, even fermented, helps lower cholesterol and prevent tooth decay, and is also good for the heart. It's a gentle stimulant, but truly the best benefit of black tea is the flavor of the tea itself.
• Suggestion: Black teas are wonderful, and the bag itself can be used to help soothe sunburns, razor burn, and other cheap beauty tips that I'll list below since the recipes are a bit long for this section.
• Our Favorite: Sweet Ginger Peach Decaf tea is a wonderful flavor. Very fruity and fun and perfect for kids.

Red Tea

• Red Tea is not actually a tea variety, but an herbal tea preparation of the South African herb Roobios. The naturally caffeine-free Roobios leaves are fermented to produce their distinctive reddish-brown color and contain even more antioxidants than green tea.
• Brew: 208 Degrees of hot water can be brewed anywhere between 5-10 minutes and it is not as sensitive to heat as our earlier varieties.
• Flavor: I've found red tea to have a surprisingly subtle taste, a very light enjoyable one, but if you're eating loud flavors (like strong olives, or pesto) the flavor won't be noticed and it may taste watery in comparison.
• The Benefits: Digestion, skin, and allergies are all improved with red tea, but more importantly it's very high in vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants.
• Suggestion: I love red tea, but I admit there just isn't a lot of time to drink cups and cups of hot tea everyday. To combine benefits with on-the-go, I steep red tea in hot water and use the hot tea to make my instant oatmeal.
• Our Favorite: Definitely the very light, airy Honeybrush Caramel.

Herbal Tea/Organic Tea

• Herbal and Organic teas are made using the same processes as above, but organic teas are made with organic-certified ingredients, and herbal teas have the added benefits of different herbs.
• Brew: Herbal infusions need hot water and time, so just like the red tea, ideally you'll want 208 degrees for at least 5 minutes, but herbal infusions can sit as long as 10 minutes without compromising flavor and allowing benefits to transfer fully into the water.
• Flavor: Herbal teas have strong qualities, and they're a wonderful way of getting kids to drink tea for their benefits.
• The Benefits: Certified organic ingredients are benefits in and of themselves. For Herbal teas, different herbs aid in different things, so each tea has a unique way of helping.
• Suggestion: Cook with teas! If you think mint teas taste fantastic, Southern Mint Herbal Tea would be a wonderful addition to any icing mix, cake, or other fantastic desserts. A nice minty tea with a dessert that has a more natural hint of mint will give you benefits so you don't feel guilty indulging into desserts during your bikini-diet.

How simple or complex your tea is is entirely up to you, but it feels good to have excuses to drink it more than once occasionally, and even better to be able to choose which teas to have during meals, or by themselves. You absolutely cannot go wrong with this beverage! In addition to all of the above, there's some cheap recipes that you can use your new found (or old favorite) for in your beauty routine.

For your hair: Conditioning your hair the natural way will give a soft shine to dry hair. Just use a quart (liter) of warm, unsweetened and freshly made tea as a final rinse after your regular shampoo. Even better: A simple cheap way of keeping a dark brown tint to your hair without buying expensive glosses and harsh hair chemicals can be made with black tea. Steep 3 bags in 1 cup of boiling water. Add 1 tbsp each of rosemary and sage and let it sit overnight before straining. The next morning, shampoo like usual, and then pour or spray the brew on your hair, making sure to saturate it. Blot with a towel and do not rinse. Regular use will help you maintain those dark tresses (or tint greying hair) but beware as black tea can stain clothes or towels.

For your skin: I already mentioned the benefits of quick eye fixes with tea bags, and the sun and razor burns, but you can also tan your skin with teas. A more natural tone will cure that dreaded oranging fear (as well as being cheaper than) of tanning creams, and it's safer than UV rays from the sun. 2 strong cups of black tea in a spray bottle and applied to clean, dry skin and allowed to air dry will give subtle tone changes safely. This also works for you men on your faces, when you shave that beard you've been saving off and end up with a pale patch on your chin!

Soothing mouthwashes, relieving first aid recipes, and more can all be found all over the internet, and these are only the beginnings of the uses. It really is one of the most versatile ingredients in your kitchen, and it's so easy to make and enjoy.

Next week, now that I've got this tea kick running, I'll look further into some of our most fantastic products: our Power Plexes. It's hard to tell what they do, how exactly to use them, and they really are some of the best and easiest additions to your skin care regimen.

Orange Chocolate Green Tea

I'm a tea fanatic! I drink it at least twice a day, and I'm always exploring different flavors, types, and figuring out new ways to incorporate this healthy wonderful favorite into daily life. I'm going to break down one of my favorite flavors now: The Orange Chocolate Green Tea.















The first thing I want to point out is the packaging. It seems like EVERY tea box you ever buy forces you to keep the box to preserve the tea itself.
Cardboard is replaced with a sturdy plastic casing inside, so even though it comes packaged in a nice cardboard box for presentation, there is a practical preservation of the tea itself. A convenient label on the top will keep your flavors sorted out.
The picture shows what a (nearly... I couldn't resist a bag of the Honeybrush Caramel) full package looks like, and the obviously nearly gone flavor we'll be discussing.















The tea bag itself is a very soft satin-like fabric with tiny mesh screens that allow you to see everything inside of the bag, but more importantly, the bag allows all of the flavor and leaves to easily escape into the water.















The leaves look shriveled and you can see the bits of orange peel as well. The smell of the bag itself is what gets me: It really smells semi-sweet, like baking chocolate.















I tried to show how it seems like there isn't a lot of tea in each individual package at all.
A later picture will show you just how much tea is really inside.




















Simple boiled water and a bit of steeping, you can see the color of the tea is true to traditional green tea - that yellowish color with a hint of green hues is exactly what you want to see.




















Here is what I really wanted to show! The tea expands almost immediately when the water hits it, and it almost has new life breathed into it. The aroma is very fragrant and it smells almost as if a dessert is cooking. It still has that semi-sweet touch to it all.















From package to tea, this is a size comparison picture of the tea before it is steeped, and right after a nice cup of tea has been made.















A close up, I tried to show (forgiving my older digital camera) how green and lively the leaves look after steeping.

The tea can be bitter if steeped too long because it is still green tea, but a bit of honey or raw sugar added takes the bite out of it, and really brings out the orange and chocolate hues to the tea. It's not so soft on flavor for a green tea, so while I often enjoy it as a nice cozy beverage, there's much more you can do!

Dessert cooking that calls for water could be pleasently stirred up with a bit of sweetened Orange Chocolate green tea, and antioxidants and the healthy qualities of green tea will keep you from feeling too guilty about sneaking a sweet into your diet. If you're interested in learning more, you can visit http://www.aikenskincare.us/ or use this direct link.

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