Make the Switch! Coffee to Tea

Research shows that green and black teas have up to 8-10 times the antioxidants as fruits and vegetables which can add significantly to your health. The health benefit of drinking tea is chalked up to one explanation, antioxidants. Evidence shows by switching to tea you can add some significant health benefits. Having a hard time giving up your 4 cups of coffee each day?
Beware of doctoring up your tea with too much milk because this has been found to decrease the antioxidants. You can find these benefits in black, green, oolong and even iced teas! The research has found that regular tea drinkers - people who drink two or more cups per day - have less heart disease and stroke, lower cholesterol levels, and they may recover from heart attacks faster.
Don't despair coffee lovers! There are some teas out there that you may find match up to your love of coffee. For instance, Chai tea uses ginger and cardamom which overpowers the taste of the black tea but offers a rich, full bodied taste which is perfect for coffee consumers! Vanilla nut teas also tend to override the black tea taste for a richer flavor. Try some tea today to better your health!
©, 2005 Meri Raffetto
About the Author

Growing Tea Herbs for Fun or Profit

Growing herbs for tea can be either a pleasant hobby or become a market crop offered to customers in a variety of ways, giving them the opportunity to add healthy variety to their beverage menu, whether warming up in the morning with a fresh-picked brew, or sipping garden-grown iced tea on a summer afternoon.
Both are often grown sustainably and can be found in Europe and North America through fair trade from their native land of South Africa. For the purposes of this article, I'll casually call infusions of any appropriate plant material for beverage purposes, "tea." Another couple of exotic plants out of Africa, Rooibos (pronounced roy-boss) and Honeybush, have recently entered the worldwide tea market. Infusions of this plant are considered "real" tea. According to legend, tea drinking from this plant originated in China four to five thousand years ago, reaching Europe in the 1600s.

Black, green, oolong and the rarer white tea, which all come from an evergreen bush (Camellia sinensis) native to China and India, are popular worldwide. Humans and tea go back a long way.
But herbal tea, grown from a variety of herbs, is also a well-established tradition worldwide. Such herbal tea was in use in Europe long before black tea arrived. Drinking herbal infusions is believed to date into prehistoric times. Even animals have been known to put specific plants into small water-holding areas and seemingly wait for infusion before drinking.
Each herb has its own special needs and specific plant parts and detailed growing instructions are usually described with the purchase of the plant or in any good herbal book. Needing only moderate watering, their soil calls for little or no fertilizer, and in fact should not be too rich as to cause excessive greenery that seems to dilute the aromatic oils. Some herbs thrive in full sun, but others prefer partial sun or even shade.
(c) 2006 Barbara Adams