Green Tea

**valve bouncer** · 02-18-2005, 05:40 AM

One of my students told me the other day that green tea and regular tea are from the same plant. I looked it up and she was right. I was a bit surprised as I always assumed it was a different type of plant. How many of you knew this? I'm just trying to work out whether I'm an idiot for not knowing this or other monkeys are similarly surprised. Supplementary question. Are the health benefits similar?

**BikeGeek** · 02-18-2005, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by valve bouncer

One of my students told me the other day that green tea and regular tea are from the same plant. I looked it up and she was right. I was a bit surprised as I always assumed it was a different type of plant. How many of you knew this? I'm just trying to work out whether I'm an idiot for not knowing this or other monkeys are similarly surprised. Supplementary question. Are the health benefits similar?

Yup, they do something different to one of them (steam them?) before dying the leaves.

**valve bouncer** · 02-18-2005, 06:34 AM

Originally Posted by BikeGeek

Yup, they do something different to one of them (steam them?) before dying the leaves.

F*ck, so I am as thick as two bricks end on. Thanks

**BikeGeek** · 02-18-2005, 06:40 AM

I only know because I used to date a tea-junky.

**Silver** · 02-18-2005, 03:25 PM

Yep. Black tea is fermented. Green tea isn't.

**ito** · 02-18-2005, 06:39 PM

I learned this from a Time or Newsweek magazine article on caffeine. Same plant, different methods of drying. Not sure about the health benefits, I know tea is good for you regardless, but green tea seems to be the golden baby of the health food group.

The Ito

bigkonarider · 02-19-2005, 06:30 AM

I like it, but Chinese green tea will clean you out !Can you say #2 ....
The cold Arizona green tea is dope.

**fonseca** · 02-21-2005, 10:26 PM

I would guess that the more fermentation the leaves undergo, the less antioxidants there are. But I don't know. White tea supposedly contains 3x the amount of antioxidants on average as green tea, and it goes through less processing than green tea. I'm sure all tea plants are the same species, but there's probably many strains with different characteristics, and the soil and climate play a big part, just like tobacco and grapes.

I personally drink Ti Kuan Yin almost exclusively, which is between green and black tea in terms of fermentation, and tastes better than both. It has a honeysuckle-like aroma, which is the best part IMO. It's grown in Taiwan, and you can get it in many varieties/strengths. I think it's in the oojlong family.