Taking a Look at Green Tea

Comparing their history, both coffee and tea have been around for quite a long time. According to legends, tea was first discovered in southwestern China 3000 BC during the Chinese Tang dynasty. It became popular among Chinese and Japanese priests and scholars who drank it during meditation, but was not introduced to Europe until the 16th century. Soon after tea was made known in Europe, it became fashionable in Britain and is still considered one of Britain's cultural beverages. Coffee on the other hand was

It also served as a food stuff, until it became a drink. According to Monks ( Buddhist) tea help with meditation, so it play an important part in Buddhism. Tea was used socially, people in both China and Japan, also in England would gather together for tea parties. While at these tea parties, people would have enjoy a cup of tea which helped the mind to stimulate intellectual conversations and debates. People drank a lot of tea because it help prevent waterborne disease. It served as a the main trade for China and Japan.

An “ancient legend in China, is that tea was discovered accidentally by the Emperor Shen Nong in 2737 B.C.E.” According to the website, www.mightyleaf.com “The emperor was boiling water under a tree and leaves fell into the pot,” and thus the legend of how drinking tea started. According to historical documents, China is the first culture to drink tea or to utilize it in religious or cultural ceremonies. The practice of sharing tea began among family members, neighbors, and friends as a social interaction. In an early Chinese dynasty, the Emperor Song Huizong wrote about the “problems that can degrade the flavor, such as using an inferior product or improperly processed leaf.” (Hinsch 77) Even poems penned in China discussed the growing and drinking of tea.

Carp stated that around the early 1580’s, Europeans adopted tea for the first time.Coffee and chocolate were also introduced to Europe around this time. These beverages did not make an impact right away because the taste was very bitter. The beverages started to “boom” once sugar was added. The plant, camelia sinensis, produces all pure tea. All the tea that Americans and Europeans consumed came from Chinese soil until the nineteenth. Ever since, India, has the most well-known varieties of tea.

         Before the Westerners began drinking tea they began the day beer or ale.  Tea, coffee, and even chocolate were very rare.  During the seventeenth century tea began to be known around europe.  Before tea was consumed for pleasure and relaxation, it was strictly used for holistic healing.  Once tea was used for

     Tea is made from young leaves and leaf buds of a type of evergreen plant

People in China were the first drinkers of tea, they believe tea has a hugely beneficial for health. In the begining, tea was a scarce and rare product, and was only consumed by royalty and it wasn’t until the discovery of more kinds of tea plants during the Tang Dynasty (616 – 907) that tea became available for people of lower classes. Tang Dynasty was the heyday of the Chinese Empire, and traders journeyed to China from the Middle East to obtain silk, porcelain and tea. During the Tang dynasty, a Buddhist monk, Lu Yu (733-804) described types of tea, its uses, the preparation and benefits of drinking it. The most important was, he connected the tea drinking with a spiritual aesthetic that reflected Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian religious

in boiling water. Tea plants are mostly native to South and East Asia and have been consumed for thousands of years. Tea started to spread and became popular in Japan during the 6th century AD. In Japan, they took tea religiously and spiritually and the most popular one was green tea. There are various types of tea but the most popular ones are green tea, oolong tea, black tea, and the rarest of them all, white tea.

While tea dates back almost 5000 years to ancient China, there is a tale that about tea was created. An Emperor (and herbalist) who was sick, sitting under a tree waiting for his servant to boil water. As the water boiled leaves from the tree had fallen into it, and the Emperor decided to drink it anyway.

During the earlier Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589), and perhaps even earlier, the drinking of tea (Camellia sinensis) became popular in southern China. Tea was viewed then as a beverage of tasteful pleasure and with pharmacological purpose as well.[202] During the Tang dynasty, tea became synonymous with everything sophisticated in society. The poet Lu Tong (790–835) devoted most of his poetry to his love of tea. The 8th-century author Lu Yu (known as the Sage of Tea)

Tea was founded by the Emperor of China, 5000 years ago. While on a trip, slaves of the Emperor were boiling water for drinking and tea leaves fell into the water. The Emperor drank the tea and found it refreshing. Lu Yu, a Chinese scholar of Buddhist Monks, codified the various methods of tea cultivation and preparation in Ancient China. This helped him to introduce tea to the Imperial Japan. Japan was first introduced to tea by the Buddhist priest Yeisei. Encouraging the use of tea in religious meditation. Yeisei became known as “the Father of Tea”. Over the years, tea has been introduced to many countries such as Europe, America, England, Russia, Britain, and Asia.

Diaries, journals and memoirs from the second half of the century are full of tea...By the end of the century, afternoon tea had crossed all class barriers...'the table was laid...there were the best things with a fat pink rose on the side of each cup; hearts of lettuce, thin bread and butter, and the crisp little cakes that had been baked in readiness that morning.".'" --- A Social History of Tea, Jane Pettigrew [The National Trust:London] 2001 (p. 102-105) "The growth of business and businesslike habits, steadily justifying the ladies and pressing the dinner-hour farther round the clock, was not well received by the stomach. English internal engines, designed for refueling every four and a half hours, begin to labor when asked to run for six hours at a stretch. Once again wives and mothers took the situation in hand and found the remedy. They invented Afternoon Tea...The English, or at least the London, public was first offered tea in 1657, being advised to drink it for medicinal reasons rather than for pleasure...In private, as well as in the public and popular Tea Gardens, millions of people had drunk tea

According to an interview from Daniel Lui, a tea expert who has been studying the art of traditional Chinese tea for decades and set up his business in Vancouver’s Chinatown to teach others the art of tea, says “Virtually all teas are from the Camellia sinensis plant. What determines the different varieties of black, green, white, oolong, and pu-erh are location, harvesting time, method of harvesting and processing”(Silver, 2011). These five kinds of tea have different colors and flavors because of their difference in location and harvesting method. The first kind is black tea, which is also called red tea in China, is a post-fermented tea that produces dark tea water when steeped. This tea has various pure qualities, which blends easily with other flavors to create a rich and exquisite taste. As the second kind, green tea is light and refreshing. It contains the largest amount of caffeine and vitamins and has a subtle flavor and light color when steeped. The third one is white tea, which is light and delicately smooth. It has the least processed procedure that only undergoes steaming and drying, and leaving to its natural state. The forth one is Oolong tea. Oolong Tea has flowery sweet aroma combine with a pleasantly sweet after taste; it never loses its appeal no matter how often people drink it. And the last one is pu-erh tea, which is the strongest and most bold flavor tea. Unlike other teas, pu-erh 's quality and taste

So, it’s likely for these reasons that you may have considered taking green tea extract (also called Camellia sinensis) as a health supplement. What’s more, some studies suggest that green tea extract has the ability to aid weight loss. In fact, many weight loss products list green tea extract as a key ingredient — herein lies the

In the article “Types of Teas and Their Health Benefits” from WebMD” it is noted that although there are many brews of tea, purist really only deem green tea. Black tea, white tea, and oolong tea as authentic.