What is green tea? How is green tea made? The health benefits of green tea are extensive. What are the best tasting kinds of green tea available?
If I could only pick one kind of tea to drink it would be green tea because it has the most health benefits.
What is green tea?
Green tea comes from the camellia sinensis plant, just like other delicious tea varieties, such as white tea, black tea and oolong tea.
How is green tea processed?
China & Japan are the two biggest producers of green tea.
In China they are almost all hand processed and are pan fried. They are smooth and light.
In Japan they steam the leaves so they taste more like vegetables…but they have the highest mineral content. Heat is what brings out all the goodies in the tea…like the super antioxidant EGCG.
What are the health benefits of drinking green tea?
There are many health benefits of drinking green tea.
Tea was a medicine in China long before it was a beverage. It is still very important in their medical programs.
Green teas are great for cognitive skills. They might also help prevent the build up of plaque that contributes to Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons.
Diabetics can really be helped with green tea because they can help balance blood sugar.
Green tea may cut the level of stress hormones in the blood so they really help relaxation. There is a tremendous amount of cardiovascular protection in green tea. They can help blood vessels relax and prevent heart attacks and strokes.
And then…there is the cancer prevention. The cancers that have shown the most promise are: breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, stomach and esophogeal cancer and skin cancer.
All of the health benefits make it a no brainer!
Famous green teas
Some famous green teas that you may have heard of are listed below. If you haven’t tried these, you should!
Where to buy the best green teas online
The best green tea is organic, since it is free of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that may be used while the tea is growing.
The Path of Tea sells over 25 different loose leaf green teas online. We only carry organic green teas (not conventionally grown teas), along with organic loose leaf teas of all varieties. Try one of these delicious green teas today:
- Organic Ancient Tea Forest
- Organic Blueberry Green
- Organic Earl Grey Green
- Organic Genmaicha
- Organic Gyokuro
- Organic Kabusecha
- Organic Kyoto Rose
- Organic Ceremonial Matcha
- Organic Strawberry Sencha (a bestseller!)
- Organic Thin Mint Houjicha
- Shop all our Organic Green Teas here
This content has been adapted from the book Your Path of Tea for Health of Body, Mind and Spirit by the late Thia McKann, Tea Master and Owner of The Path of Tea.