White Tea. (And I don’t mean black tea with milk!)
"Study after study with tea proves that it has many healing properties. This is not an old wives tale, it’s a fact." Milton Schiffenbauer, Ph.D., microbiologist and professor in the Department of Biology at Pace University.
I keep getting these large orders for White Tea from the US. Interesting! I didn’t know much about White Tea, so I thought it was time to see why these big sales are happening.
Well, just like those other teas, white tea come from the Camellia sinensis plant. But the leaves are picked and harvested before the leaves open fully, when the buds are still covered by fine white hair.
White tea has very little processing and no fermentation. It is rapidly steamed and dried, leaving the leaves “fresh.” Green tea, composed of mainly leaves, is steamed or fired prior to being rolled. Oolong and black teas get their dark colour and flavour from additional processing.
So why drink White Tea?
From all I find it have a lot of health benefits that may even out weigh green tea.
Some studies have shown that white tea contains more active cancer-fighting antioxidants than green tea.
The anti-viral and anti-bacterial effect of white tea is greater than that of green tea.
White exhibits anti-fungal effects
White tea may have application in the inactivation of pathogenic human microbes, i.e., bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
So now for the important thing….the taste!
Well, I’m a big tea drinker, so your ideal taste tester when it comes to tea. White tea has a closer taste to black tea, than green tea. It is described as light and sweet. This tea is quite pleasant with or without milk. For my taste, I found that it was a little weaker than I normally like, so I just need to brew it longer. White tea does taste very similar to black tea.
The conclusions I've come to is that White Tea is as good for you, if not better in many ways as Green Tea and to me, it taste a whole lot better. So if you want to drink tea for your health as well as your enjoyment, then White tea really is a good alternative. Give it a go!
