Leaf Teas

A gaiwan is a cover bowl specifically used for drinking leafed teas in China. It originated from Ming dynasty. The gaiwan is usually made of porcelain. What makes it ideal to drink tea is that you can brew your tea in it and drink from it at the same time. A typical gaiwan has a saucer, a bowl, and a lid.

The proper way of using a gaiwan is this: add in tea leaves in the bowl, add in boiling water, and close the lid. The lid will allow the tea to be infused right in the bowl. After the few minutes, hold the bowl in one hand, and use the other hand to use the lid to block the leaves. Now drink the tea directly from the bowl.

Does Green Tea have caffeine? Yes, it contain caffeine, just like any other teas. However, Green Teas have less caffeine than coffee. If you have insomnia problems, don’t drink green teas past dinner time. Asians, Chinese, Japanese particularly, drink green teas with their food.

Many Chinese drink green teas to start off their day. Many people wonder whether Asian’s higher metabolism is caused by drinking green teas. There are no scientific proof, however.

How often and how much you should drink green teas? Well it depends on your own lifestyle. Keep in mind, Green Teas are not dietary supplements, or medicine. Asian drink it as their main beverage. So if you feel comfortable, drink it like ice tea or water to do with your dinner or lunch.

It’s great to drink iced green teas. But, the Chinese or Japanese seldom drink ice Green Teas. No experts have done research on the effects of ice in green teas. So stick to the hot version until they find out.

Green tea leaves are actually Camellia sinensis. Its origin is China. But throughout the history, it has become tightly woven with Japanese, Korean, and many other Asian cultures. There isn’t just one kind of green tea, it varies from growth place to growth place.

Japanese drinks mostly green teas. It’s actually called “tea” in Japan because that’s all there is. Currently China is the biggest green tea producer and exporter exporting over 80% of the world’s green teas.

We hear so much about the benefits of green teas. The Japanese drinks it all day long. The Chinese drinks it. It fights cancer, delays aging….. The list goes on and on. Even the medical community now takes green teas seriously. Some research has been done to find out substances in green tea and their effects on our bodies.

According to the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “There has been recently a publishing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry cited that substances found in green tea work their way into the tissues of the eye.” The substances are known catechins, which for some reason are absorbed by the lens, retina and other parts of the eye. Therefore it could protect against common eye diseases.

In the publication, the researchers from the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong gave green tea to rats. The result came out to be positive, Catechins affected the rats’ eyes.

So now we have another reason to drink green tea, other than lowering cancer risks and anti-aging.

According to the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Here’s good news for people who can’t start their morning without a cup or two of java: Coffee and tea consumption may decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”

That’s the conclusion of an Australian study that also found the more coffee you drink, the lower your risk of diabetes. Every cup of coffee was associated with a 7 percent reduction in the risk of diabetes, the researchers said.

According to the US National Cancer Institute, Antioxidants in green tea appear to significantly lower the risk for developing lung cancer among smokers and nonsmokers alike, new research from Taiwan reveals.

The study suggests that smokers and nonsmokers who consume a minimum of one cup of green tea per day appear to have a nearly 13-fold and fivefold lower risk, respectively, for developing lung cancer than smokers and nonsmokers who don’t drink any green tea.

Source: Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to the National Pain Foundation, a study presented on Nov. 24 at a conference in India in advance of publication in an upcoming issue of the journal Acta Horticulturae showed that an herb called Brazilian mint treats pain as effectively as some synthetic drugs.

Traditional healers in Brazil have long used the herb Hyptis crenata to treat a range of health problems, including headaches, stomach pain, fever and flu. This study is the first to scientifically prove the pain-relieving properties of Brazilian mint.

In experiments with mice, the Newcastle University researchers found that Brazilian mint tea (the traditional way of administering the medicine) was as effective at relieving pain as a synthetic aspirin-style drug called Indomethacin.

Source: Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.