Green Tea is produced from various regions like, Terrai (plain lands near Darjeeling), Assam & Kangra (Himachal Pradesh), it results in a substantially different beverage because the manufacturing process is significantly different. Green tea is not served with milk or sugar, but you can decide that for yourself.
Tags: Health Muse, Tea, World News
MINT AND LIME ICED TEA
Ingredients:
8 cups (2 quarts) water
8 green tea bags
1 bunch fresh mint
1 1/2 cups superfine or granulated sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from 4 medium limes)
Ice
6 fresh mint
1 medium lime
Procedure:
Place water in a medium pot and bring to a simmer over high heat. When water simmers, remove from heat, add tea bags and mint, cover, and let steep 10 minutes. Once tea has steeped, discard tea bags, add sugar, and stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Let tea cool to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator to cool completely, about 2 hours.
Once tea is cold, remove mint and stir in lime juice. Taste and adjust with more lime juice or sugar as desired. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint and a wedge of lime (if using).
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There are four primary polyphenols in green tea and they are often collectively referred to as catechins. 
Powerful antioxidants, catechins have been shown in recent studies to fight viruses, slow aging, and have a beneficial effect on health. Clinical tests have shown that catechins destroy free radicals and have far-reaching positive effects on the entire body.Â
Free radicals are highly reactive molecules and fragments of molecules that can damage the body at the cellular level leaving the body susceptible to cancer, heart disease, and many other degenerative diseases.
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Japanese history records that in A.D. 729, the emperor, Shomu, served tea to one hundred Buddhist monks at his palace. Since no tea was grown in Japan at that time, the processed leaves must have come from China. The first seeds for cultivation are thought to have been taken to Japan by Dengyo Daishi, a monk who spent two years from A.D. 803 to 805, studying in China. He returned home, planted the seeds in the grounds of his monastery and when he served tea made from his first planting to the Emperor Saga five years later, it is said that Saga enjoyed the new beverage so much that he ordered tea cultivation to be established in five provinces near the capital.
Between the end of the ninth and eleventh centuries, Chinese-Japanese relations deteriorated and so tea, being a Chinese commodity, fell from favor and was no longer drunk at Court. However, Japanese Buddhist monks continued to drink tea to help them stay awake and to concentrate during periods of meditation. In the early twelfth century, the situation between the two nations improved and a Japanese monk by the name of Eisai was the first to pay a visit to China. He returned with more tea seeds and with the new Chinese custom of drinking powdered green tea. He also brought back an understanding of the teachings of the Rinzai Zen Buddhist sect. The tea drinking and the Buddhist beliefs developed alongside each other and whereas the rituals associated with tea drinking in ancient China have died out, the Japanese developed them into a complicated and unique ceremony. Still today, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, cha-no-yu, involves a precise pattern of behavior designed to create a quiet interlude during which the host and guests strive for spiritual refreshment and harmony with the universe. In 1906, Okakura Kakuzo wrote, in his Book of Tea, “Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.†The Tea Ceremony captures all the essential elements of Japanese philosophy and artistic beauty, and interweaves four principles – harmony (with people and nature), respect (for others), purity (of heart and mind), and tranquility. Ad Kakuzo wrote, “Tea is more than an idealization of the form of drinking, it is a religion of the art of life.†The ceremony, which can last for up to four hours, may be performed at home, in a special room set aside for the purpose, or in a tea house.
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Japanese Buddhist abbot Eisai, a devout Zen Buddhist, brings tea seeds from
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400-600
Demand for tea as a medicinal beverage rises in China and cultivation processes are developed. Many tea drinkers add onion, ginger, spices, or orange to their teas. Plantations are established in the Yangtse river valleys and tea is further popularized by being gifted to emperors and appearing in taverns, wine stores and noodle houses.
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Herbal tea is an herbal infusion made from anything other than the leaves of the tea bush (Camellia sinensis). The English word “tisane†originated from the Greek word, a drink made from pearl barley.
Herbal teas can be made with fresh or dried flowers, leaves, seeds or roots, generally by pouring boiling water over the plant parts and letting them steep for a few minutes. Seeds and roots can also be boiled on a stove. The tisane is then strained, sweetened if so desired, and served. Many companies produce herbal tea bags for such infusions.
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In 780 A.D., Lu Yu wrote the first definitive book on tea, the “Ch’a
Chingâ€. He was orphaned and raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China’s finest monasteries. However, as a young man, he rebelled against the discipline of training. In mid-life he retired for five years into seclusion. Drawing from his vast memory of observed events and places, he codified the various methods of tea cultivation and preparation in ancient China. The vast definitive nature of his work projected him into near sainthood within his own lifetime. Lu Yu is known as the “Tea Saintâ€.
The book inspired the Zen Buddhist missionaries to create the form of tea service that would later be introduced to imperial Japan as the Japanese tea ceremony, Chanoyu. The spread of tea cultivation throughout China and Japan is largely accredited to the movement of Buddhist priests throughout the region.
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The Chinese character for tea first appeared in 725 A.D. It is said that the Chinese associate the adoption of tea with the introduction of Buddhism from India. Some believe that a Buddhist Monk, Gan Lu (Sweet Dew) who was in India on a pilgrimage, brought tea back to China in the first century. The seven “fairy tea trees†he planted can still be seen on Mengding in Sichuan. Another legend claims that the tea plant sprouted from the eyelids of Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen. After coming to India, he sat down to meditate for nine years. Near the end of his meditation, he briefly fell asleep. Upon awakening, he was so upset with himself that he sliced off his eyelids. The first tea plants emerged from the ground where his eyelids landed and were meant to honor his sacrifice and to assist others on the path of enlightenment. This tale is frequently associated with the Japanese character for tea, which is the same as eyelids.
Whatever legend one associates with the origin and discovery of tea, Buddhism and tea have a strong relationship. As Buddhist priests started to move around China and Japan, the spread of tea cultivation and tea drinking followed them. Most teas are named after the mountains that held monasteries as well as tea. Monks have been responsible for innovations in growing, processing, and using tea. Preparing tea became a ritual for the monks as it was used to aid in meditation and for ceremonies.
Outside of the monasteries, tea was used medicinally until the 5th century when propagation and trading began. Once tea became a recognized and valuable commodity, it was used as currency by rural populations. Finally, in the 7th century tea became known as China’s national drink and the growing popularity of tea as refreshment resulted in a government imposed tea tax.
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