It's always relaxing and refreshing to drink tea early in the morning, late in the afternoon, or any time you need a boost from stress and a hectic schedule. Its antioxidant properties detoxify the body, getting rid of harmful free radicals to promote overall health and wellness. Also, it’s believed that regularly drinking tea can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
In this post, you'll learn the different ways to drink tea to help detoxify your body.
What Is Tea?
Tea is a popular and widely consumed drink, possessing a relaxing aroma. All types of tea come from Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub that originated in East Asia. It’s commonly prepared by boiling water or pouring hot water over fresh or cured Camellia sinensis leaves. Drinking three to five cups of green tea per day reaps innumerable health benefits.
Here are some good-to-know facts about tea:
- Commercially Available: Tea products can be bought from supermarkets and grocery stores. Also, they’re widely sold online from all parts of the world, such as Blue Poppy.
- Tea Processing: The tea-making process involves plucking, withering, or allowing the wilting and softening of the tea leaves; rolling or shaping the leaves; wringing out the juices; oxidizing (the tea leaf interacts with oxygen); and drying or firing.
- Types of Tea: The five basic types of tea include green tea, white tea, black tea, oolong, and pu-erh.
1. Add Loose White Tea In Hot Water
White tea pertains to an unprocessed tea, and its name was obtained from the fuzzy white ‘down’ of newly opened buds. After white tea has been plucked, it is withered and dry. The leaves aren't shaped or rolled. White teas tend to produce yellow or very pale green liquor with flavor and aroma.
White tea, among other types of tea, is considered the least processed tea. For this reason, it retains the highest number of antioxidants. According to a study, tea polyphenols present in white and green teas, particularly the catechins, are potent antioxidants and antimicrobial agents that have great benefits for human health. That's why drinking white tea is a great way to detoxify your body.
Here's how to prepare white tea:
- Add loose white tea to a teapot.
- Pour hot water over the white tea leaves. The ideal water temperature is 170 to 185°F (75 to 85°C). Don't use boiling water because it ruins the white tea's delicate flavor.
- Allow the white tea leaves to seep in for about five to eight minutes.
- Strain and serve white tea. White tea has a refreshing taste and can be enjoyed either as a cold or hot brew. Add more dry white tea leaves for a stronger tea. You can experiment to create the perfect balance of flavor that suits your preferences.
For food pairing, white tea goes well with lightly flavored seafood, cucumber salad, or a fish recipe. You can drink white tea alone in between meals. Accentuate white tea's subtle notes by adding wildflower honey or fireweed honey, which are delicately flavored.
2. Drink Good Quality Japanese Green Tea
While white tea is unprocessed, green tea is withered and rolled after it is plucked. Japanese green tea is usually associated with good quality tea, with beautiful and consistent size and shape of the leaves. Drinking good-quality Japanese green tea provides detoxification and relaxation for the body with its toasty, grassy flavor and yellow or green liquor color.
According to a 2007 study, concentrated chemicals in green tea dramatically boost the production of key detoxification enzymes among people with low levels of beneficial proteins. With the increase in detoxification enzymes, more harmful toxins in the body are eliminated, which helps prevent diseases.
Here's how to check the quality of green tea:
- Smell the green tea aroma while you taste and drink.
- Agitate the green tea in your mouth and then breathe it out through your nose.
- Allow the tea to settle in your mouth and throat.
- Observe the taste of the green tea as you exhale through your nose.
Some perfect examples of food to pair with green tea include chicken, turkey, root vegetables, light-style pizzas, and light stir-fry. Smokey green tea doesn’t go well with sweets because they bring out the bitterness of green tea.
3. Best Way to Serve Oolong Tea
Oolong tea has a more complex flavor as compared to white and green teas. This tea is time-consuming to create because it’s rolled and oxidized repeatedly, along with the other basic steps of tea processing.
Most oolongs come from China and Taiwan and are usually twisted or balled. Oolong is between black and green tea, which is 8% to 80% oxidized, measured by the amount of red or brown on the tea leaf while it’s being made.
Here's how to brew oolong tea:
- Prepare Things You'll Need: The things you'll need to make oolong tea include loose oolong tea, a mug with an infuser, filtered water, a measuring spoon, a measuring cup, a tea scale, an electric kettle with a temperature setting, and a timer.
- Boil Filtered Water: Use an electric kettle to get the exact water temperature you need. Oolong tea is best brewed at a water temperature of 185° to 208°F. Bring the water to a boil. Let it cool for several minutes.
- Warm up the mug: Pour hot water into the mug. Swirl it around and discard the water.
- Add Oolong Tea: Put two teaspoons or 6 grams of loose oolong tea into the mug and add hot water.
- Steep: Steep oolong tea for about ten seconds, discard the water, and then take out the infuser, throwing out the water in the mug to rinse or wake up the oolong leaves to unfurl. Add a cup of water and cover the teapot, and then steep the oolong tea for about 45 seconds. Producing good-quality oolong involves steeping it multiple times.
- Serve: Take out the infuser, serve, and drink. Never leave the oolong tea in hot water beyond the recommended steeping time. That's why using an infuser is highly recommended because you can put it aside while drinking tea.
- Second Steep: After drinking the first cup, do a second steep in hot water for one minute and fifteen seconds. Steep oolong tea all over again in hot water and add thirty seconds to the previous tea steep time. Reaching the fifth steep pushes oolong tea to get its best flavors.
4. Pair Your Black Tea
Black tea is the easiest type of tea to brew because you only need boiling water, while other tea types are extremely sensitive to water temperature. Black teas have the strongest flavors and are the only style of tea taken with milk and sugar. Also, they’re the most popular iced tea bases.
If you want to pair your black tea with food, here are some recommendations:
- Tea Sandwiches: Black tea can be paired with a cheddar cheese tea sandwich or the curried chicken sandwich.
- Hearty Rich Foods: Black teas have robust flavors that are paired well with rich, warm foods like roast meats (e.g., lamb, venison, or beef).
- Pasta: Black teas also go well with heavy pasta dishes, such as lasagna.
5. Pu'erh Tea and Milk Infusion
Pu'erh tea undergoes a tea process that green tea also undergoes. Before pu'erh tea leaves are dried, they’re aged and pressed hard into dense cakes or as loose leaves. Pu'erh is a type of fermented tea in which the aging process may last from a few months to a couple of years. Well-stored and very old pu'erhs are known as "living teas," like wine, and are highly prized for their woodsy, musty, or earthy scent and rich, smooth flavor.
Milk and tea provide a synergistic effect, detoxifying your body and making your immune system stronger. With the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of pu'erh tea and the vitamins and minerals of milk, your body will greatly benefit from this tea and milk infusion recipe. This recipe has a mellow, delightful, and smooth character, giving sweet, honeyed feelings. It helps protect you against colds and eliminate the toxins in your body.
Here's the recipe for the healthy milk pu-erh tea with bee honey:
- Brew the pu-erh tea leaves with hot water twice. Serve in cups.
- Add some milk to the well-brewed tea leaves.
- Stir the milk pu-erh tea and let it cool for a few minutes, or about 106 degrees Fahrenheit, before adding honey to the blend.
- Mix the blend well, and then drink it while it is hot.
Conclusion
There are different types of tea available, and there are plenty of ways to drink tea to help detoxify your body. You can simply add loose white tea leaves to hot water. High-quality Japanese green tea leaves are best served with turkey and chicken.
On the other hand, drinking oolong tea produced through multiple steeping times is highly recommended for the best tea drinking experience because of its high-quality flavor and aroma. If you're looking for a sweet tea recipe, you can try making a healthy milk pu-erh tea. You can choose the best tea that suits your taste and mood to detoxify your body and improve your health.
FAQs about Tea and Detoxification
What's the most effective tea for liver support specifically?
Are there any teas to avoid if I'm trying to support my body's detoxification?
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About the author
Kei Nishida
Author, CEO Dream of Japan
Certification: PMP, BS in Computer Science
Education: Western Washington University
