Today’s blog marks a small milestone for us. This is our 100th tea blog. When we started this blog last year, we didn’t expect to be able to attract this much interest from the tea community. We’d like to thank you for your interest in our tea blog, and we look forward to sharing more tea knowledge with you in the future.
In this blog, we’d like to discuss something we’ve stayed away from - the nutrient contents of tea.
There are many reasons why we haven’t talked about this topic. As a tea maker, we want our customers to enjoy the tea-drinking experience and lifestyle. Overemphasizing tea’s health benefits is quite utilitarian, and it can only mislead people into believing that tea is a miracle beverage that can fix everything.
Most information on this topic feature eye-catching terms such as “antioxidant” and “weight loss”. Some information even simply associate these terms with one particular tea (such as: “green tea is great for anti-aging”). But in terms of the specifics, few can provide credible information and sources.
This is why we’d like to talk about general health benefits and nutrient contents of tea. Please note that most numbers and facts in this blog are referenced directly from research reports from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Wuyishan Bureau of Tea.
Tea has a history of thousands of years, but the health benefit of tea is a relatively new topic. With the help of modern technology, we now have a more thorough understanding of nutrient contents of tea leaves. Since 1970, there are researches on Suppressive Effects of Tea on Cancer Cells Proliferation(1975, 1979), as well as effects on Anti-Caries(1981), Anti-Oxidation(1983), Anti-platelet Aggregation(1985), Anti-Cancer Activity(1984), Lowering Blood Pressure(1985), Reducing Lipid Levels(1985), and Treating Canker Sores(1987).
Of course, tea leaves can only deliver these health benefits by releasing organics. Interestingly, the majority of a tea leaf is actually water (75%), only 25% of which are dry substances. Among all dry substances, about 93% to 96% are organics, and 4% to 7% are inorganic. (see table below)
Please note that the table only shows a very general guidance. There are lots of differences among different teas. When the same batch of fresh leaves made into different categories of teas (see Blog 11 for more), the level of nutrient contents will be different. For example, although all teas have tea polysaccharide, Wuyi oolong’s content is 1.8% to 2.9%. That is 3.1x of black tea’s and 1.7x of green tea’s.
When comparing the nutrient contents of different teas, we have to be more specific. As the previous example shows, for the same nutrient, different tea categories have different levels of contents. Therefore, we can compare a white tea to a black tea, and we can also compare a China’s green tea to a Japan’s green tea. But we cannot simply compare “China’s teas” to “Japan’s teas” because this comparison would too ambiguous. People might ask, what kind of teas are you comparing exactly? The results of this type of comparison can be conflicting.
Finally, we’d like to emphasize that it is the tea-drinking lifestyle that gives people a healthier life. Drinking tea wouldn’t be helpful if you drink a cup of tea then eat five pounds of cheesecake. Tea is an agricultural product, and it is not a health product or even a medicine.
Just like drinking wine also has some health benefits, but most people choose to drink wine because they like it. Tea drinking should be the same. After all, we drink tea for its tastes and aromas. That’s the ultimate enjoyment of a nice tea.
We hope you enjoyed today’s blog. As always, if you have questions or suggestions, please leave a comment, tweet us @valleybrooktea or email the author directly at zhang@valleybrooktea.com. Please also follow us on Instagram @valleybrooktea and join our mail list to get our daily tea updates and our latest promotions!
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