Making Delicious Iced Tea

It quickly became a drink for all types of weather. It was so refreshing that people realized you could enjoy tea served cold instead of the common hot methods. Louis expo. A tea merchant by the name of Richard Blechynden decided to serve tea over some ice during a St.

Iced tea can trace its' roots back to the heat wave in the year 1904. Many people savor drinking iced tea, especially on a warm summer day.
You can drink these either decaffeinated or not for a little boost in energy when you need it. Some of the popular flavors are peach, mango, strawberry, and raspberry iced tea. It is a refreshing drink when the temperatures are rising.

Simply open the bottle and enjoy. Many of the bottled iced teas you purchase already have these in them for extra flavoring. Iced tea can be sweetened by adding sugar.
Sugar and lemon can be alternatively added to sweeten it up even more. It should be refrigerated for six or seven hours, then strained into a second clean container. With this method, a dry tea leaf should be placed in a clean container that has the right amount of cold water.

The first way is called the cold steeping method. If you are more inclined to make your iced tea there are two methods to try.
The second method of making iced tea is the hot steeping method. One favorite way of doing this is to double the amount of dry tea leaves you would typically use for hot tea, infuse it for approximately 5 minutes, and then pour over a full glass of ice. For the optimum results, let the tea cool down before pouring it over the ice. Alternatively you can try to steep it for approximately 5 minutes in hot water, then pour into a container with a matching amount of cold water. This method will dilute the strong tea flavor and help avoid clouding.
Iced tea can be mixed with lemonade or your favorite fruit juices to create a fruity flavored drink. Bear in mind that by doing this you should make sure that the juice does not overwhelm the flavor of the tea, but complement it instead. Experiment with the mixing ratios for the most desired results. Once you get it right you will be enjoying your iced drink while soaking up the warm sun.
James McDonald writes for findteaonline.com, a website where you can find
flavored tea
products and gift ideas. We have a variety of flavors as well as informative articles on many topics related to tea.

Tea Varietals

Wu Long? Green? Black?

What's your cup of tea?
Or something more exotic like pu-erh or white tea?
The major difference between all of these types of tea is how the leaves are processed after they are picked. No matter which your preference, all tea comes from the same plant - Camellia sinensis.
The others are primarily used as flowering shrubs. There are as many as 300 species of Camellia, but only one of them is used to make tea. Camellia is a genus of the family Theaceae. Even so, not all tea leaves are equal.
The assamica variety will grow to a larger plant than sinensis and has larger, thinner leaves. The sinensis variety has relatively small and narrow leaves and is more tolerant to cold. assamica (Assam tea or Indian tea). sinensis (China tea) and Camellia sinensis var.

The "tea Camellia" (Camellia sinensis) has two varieties - Camellia sinensis var.
Varietals have special characteristics that make them suitable for growing in a particular area or for producing a certain type of tea. As with most Camellias, Camellia sinensis is very easy to hybridize and this had led to the development of more than 3000 tea ‘varietals'.
Other varietals may have higher resistance to diseases which can affect the tea plant. White tea, for example, is produced from a varietal that has an abundance of fine hairs on the young leaf shoots. Varietals can be identified by leaf shape, coloring, leaf size, or other desirable characteristics.
‘Da Bai' (big white) is a varietal used to make the Japanese green tea of the same name. Many varietals are given names that describe the appearance or the use of the tea leaf.
A varietal traditionally used for white tea could be processed into wu long tea, or a black tea varietal could be used to make green tea. Most varietals have come to be associated with a certain type of tea, but this does not mean that specific varietals cannot be used for other teas.
The taste of tea is affected by the soil, the climate, the season, the varietal, the variety, the processing method, the skill of the tea processor, the brewing method, and the brewing utensils. One of the reasons why tea is so interesting is because of its limitless possibilities.
No wonder then that tea has been so popular for so many years - it's a taste of life. All of these factors affect the flavor and quality of the tea.
This article is provided by
TeaGenius.com - for all your tea information
This article may be freely reproduced on the condition that the credits and links remain intact and active. .
Information about the types of tea, tea production, tea growing, the health benefits of tea, and making and serving tea can be found at Tea Genius is a complete knowledge base of tea. Paul Dickson is a contributing writer Tea Genius.com.
www.TeaGenius.com
If you are a tea lover or simply want to know more about the wonderful beverage called tea, visit
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Tea Grades-Kinds-Varieties: Start Learning All About Tea!

TEA PLANTATION IS A LOVELY PLACE TO VISIT!
TEA PLANTATION
is a nice place to visit. Look at the bounty of nature. Have a view of the estates from a few hundred meters above in the sky. Wonder at the natural landscape being manipulated by man for his convenience.
The smooth undulating hill is seemed to be covered with green woolen blanket just to protect itself from the cold weather. See also a few trees other than the shade giving silver oaks, looking beautiful with their own canopy.
You can see the clouds spreading above the tea gardens and a few small waterfalls turning into streams. They fall down and run here and there in between the blocks of the estates and go down to mix with the river far off in the plains.
SILVER SHINE OF TEA FACTORY!
Look at the tea factories located on the hill tops; their metallic tops are shining in the sunlight; they leave smoke in the sky demonstrating that they are active in the production of raw teas.
They are grown to a short height of about 4 feet for all the operational convenience of man. The tea plants are not really short bushes, but tall growing trees kept pruned. When you admire with the birds eye view of the plantation, come down and drive in a jeep and see the estates at a closer look.
BONSAI CULTURE!
You are right. It is a large scale "bonsai culture" of hundreds and hundreds of tea trees grown to a short height, not in earthen pots, but in Mother Nature's lap. The aim is not to exhibit the art of bonsai, but to exploit the nature to the advantage of man with the help of science.
TEA PLUCKING AND PROCESSING!
The tea plucking is a beautiful operation. Just walk and see the plants opening their ‘two leaves and buds' every where in the terminal shoots. They appear in all the pruned shoots, say in hundreds in a bush of tea.They readily allow the women harvester to pluck and put them in tea leaf baskets. Baskets of tea leaves are emptied into small trucks and sent to the factory for processing.
You can see the tea leaves being processed inside the tea factory. To explain in a simple way, the leaves are withered, fermented, roasted, graded through sieves into different sizes and packed in separate bulks in chests and gunny bags in convenient sizes. There may be about seven or eight grades of tea from each factory.
OLD AND NEW!
However, the raw materials are the very same "two leaves and buds". The processing methods are different and so also the resultant teas. The good old method of processing is adopted in some orthodox factories, while ultra modern method of CTC processing is done in most of the factories. There is also difference in making of the teas also.
LOOSE TEA IS BULK TEA!
The teas are now made available in the form of bulk teas. In other words, they are graded and kept in loose form in bulk quantities ready to be shifted to godowns of auctioneers for selling to big traders.
Now, let us see the loose teas in different grades or sizes. Now, the teas are in the custody of auctioneers and tea brokers. You may ask for those samples of teas. Get a shock, here. What a surprise? They give you samples of teas of different kinds and grades and also from hundreds and hundreds of plantations, estates or factories. To a new entrepreneur, really it is a shock and starting of a state of confusion!
TEA
IS NOT A SINGLE OR SIMPLE PRODUCT!
You thought that the packed tea is simply a single direct product; not so; all are not alike; when you make it as a tea drink, it differs every time; taste it sip by sip; feel the difference!
Only when you see the auction catalogues and samples, you will get astonished to see that there are hundreds and hundreds of varieties and kinds; again that all are not the same; they differ in their characters too.
Alright, there is something to know and something to do!
It is wonderful!
Now, you agree that there is a need to understand all kinds of teas,
in respect of their prime characters called, color, taste, flavor and strength.
WE WILL MOVE TO THE NEXT.
Please Note:
This information web site/blog will grow steadily.
However, you know 'time is money and the fittest only survives'!
As a research scholar, grower, planter, trader, retailer or a part of this prestigious tea industry, please contact the author to get more information at a faster way.
CONTACT: teablendspnk@yahoo.co.in or pnkguru@yahoo.com
RESOURCE:
From business and intensive research experience of the author.

Can Green Tea Help With Gastrointestinal Illnesses?

For the last several years, there has been an abundance of research on the effects of green tea and the many health benefits that it can offer. For centuries, Asians have used green tea for health, both to prevent disease and treat illnesses.
Green tea is not fermented during processing, but black tea does go through a fermentation process. The differences occur from the differences in how the tea is processed. There are many different types of tea, but they all come from this plant. Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant.
For this reason, green tea has more healthy anti-oxidants and therefore more health benefits than black tea. These new compounds are not as healthy as the unaltered catechins in a tea leaf in its original state. Fermenting the tea leaves, converts the catechins to other compounds. Tea leaves naturally contain anti-oxidants.
Anti-oxidants are critical to our health because they combat free radicals. Each day, as we convert food to energy, we create these free radicals in our body, which damage our cells and our DNA. Over time, these unchecked free radicals cause disease and aging.
Fruits and vegetables are also great anti-oxidant sources. For this reason, large doses of anti-oxidants, particularly those like the ones found in green tea, have been found to prevent many types of disease, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease and potentially other diseases, as well.
For this reason, green tea seems to calm the inflammation that accompanies inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal problems. One study reported by the UK Tea Council found that green tea's anti-oxidants spend a lot of time in the intestinal tract, and have an anti-inflammatory effect on this part of the body. But, recently there has been powerful news about the possible effects of green tea on gastrointestinal problems, like inflammatory bowel disease.
This theory stands to reason, since green tea is known to have an anti-inflammatory effect all over the body. These powerful anti-inflammatory effects are also thought to be one of the reasons that green tea is effective at preventing and treating heart disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease refers to a group of disorders that cause the intestines to become inflamed (red and swollen). The inflammation often lasts a long time and comes back repeatedly. Over 600,000 Americans suffer from some sort of inflammatory bowel disease every year.
Inflammatory bowel diseases can cause cramping, pain, diarrhea, weight loss and bleeding in your intestines. Two of the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease are Chron's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Crohn's disease causes ulcers along the small and large intestines. However, it can sometimes also cause inflammation around the rectum, too. Ulcerative colitis causes ulcers in the lower part of the large intestine, sometimes starting at the rectum.
We don't fully understand what causes inflammatory bowel diseases, though we do know that it runs in families. It may be caused by a germ or problem with your immune system. It is usually diagnosed through x-rays and other tests that look directly into your intestines to find evidence of damage.
Inflammatory bowel diseases are not life threatening, but they can be very painful and disruptive to your life. In most cases, they are treated with anti-inflammatory medications, and sometimes anti-biotics, if the particular problem seems to be caused by an infection. In extreme cases of ulcerative colitis, surgery is sometimes performed to remove part of the colon. Surgery doesn't seem to have any effect on Crohn's disease.
Because the typical treatment is designed to reduce the inflammation in the intestines, it stands to reason that green tea would hold much promise in treatment. It is likely that many inflammatory bowel disease patients could find some relief very quickly by incorporating green tea into their diets.
Because sufferers of inflammatory bowel diseases are often placed on diets that call for reduced amounts of fiber, they often don't eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. The fiber in fruits and vegetables can further irritate the bowels. This means that they may not be getting all the anti-oxidants they need, particularly since they may need more than the average person to reduce the inflammation in their systems. This makes green tea the perfect alternative; it provides powerful anti-oxidants with zero fiber.
If you suffer from any form of irritable bowel disease, it's a good idea to give green tea a try. It has no side effects and is well tolerated by most people, regardless of their health issues. While it does contain caffeine, it is usually well tolerated even by the caffeine sensitive, because its caffeine level is very low. Adding some green tea to your diet may be a simple way to get some relief from the painful symptoms of irritable bowel diseases.
Jon M. Stout is the Chairman of the Golden Moon Tea Company. Golden Moon Tea carefully selects the finest rare and orthodox teas, which are processed slowly and handcrafted with extreme care. At their website, you can learn more about their current
tea
offerings, including their exceptional
green tea
, white tea, black tea, oolong tea (also known as wu-long and
wu long tea
) and chai. Visit goldenmoontea.com for all details concerning the Golden Moon Tea Company's fine line of teas.

Tea’s Important Role in Reducing Disease

Recently it has been shown that high quality teas have many health benefits, especially Black and Green Tea. With all the news on Black and Green Tea lately, you may be considering adding it to your daily diet regime. If that is so, only use the best quality and freshest tea available for the maximum health benefits.
Millions of people all of the world have been drinking tea for centuries. In America it has been considered a cheap convenient drink for soothing the soul and stimulating the senses. Yet there is a far more important reason that people drink tea more than any other beverage: the tea leaf has potent health-enhancing powers. The Japanese have known this for thousands of years and the modern West is just catching up to the remarkable health benefits of drinking tea.
Some of the benefits derived from drinking tea are reducing cholesterol, preventing tooth decay, strengthening the immune system, helping to prevent heart disease and stroke and reduce the risk of cancer.
It has been found by researchers that more than in any other foods, tea has the most potent free-radical fighters of all. This helps in reducing cell damage that can lead to cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol and other serious illnesses. Polyphenols act as antioxidants in the body.

The active ingredients in black and green tea are flavonoids called polyphenols.
There was a study done with 800 hundred men. It showed that those that ate the most flavonoids had a 58 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease that those that did not. Those men that consumed four cups of black tea per day were the healthiest among the group.
This makes it a worthy consideration for adding tea to your diet. In addition to that it has been found that tea reduces tumor formation and is linked to lower levels of breast, lung, esophageal, pancreatic, colon, skin, stomach, liver and small intestine cancers.
Another startling study was done by a team of Italian researchers on the effects of green tea on men prone to prostate cancer. The study used 62 high risk men who had previously had precancerous lesions, (which often turn into prostate cancer within one year). All of the men were between the ages of 45 and 75 exuding vegetarians and men who already consumed green tea.
These results were amazing, and another reason, in my humble opinion, that green tea should be added to your diet. Thirty two men in the control group developed prostate cancer, while nine of the placebo group developed the disease.
So if you drink any tea purchase only the freshest, highest quality and if you take green tea supplements be sure that they do not have fillers or caffeine. In using the best quality teas available you increase your rate of success.
Also try adding some herbal teas, many of which can aide in digestion, cold relief, and sleeplessness. Yes, you can steep longer to get more compounds, but the tea will become bitter and therefore unpalatable. For best results with black or green teas steep for three minutes to get all of the beneficial compounds.
Tea for Health and Longevity!