How Processing Affects Herbal Tea Health Benefits

You are probably aware that herbal teas can offer great health benefits, but you might not know anything about how they are made. If you do not know how they are made, you might be unaware that processing can affect herbal tea's relative nutritional value. Most people want to drink herbal tea for health benefits, more than for the taste. If you are worried about buying the healthiest tea on the market, then processing the tea you are buying will make a big difference to your shopping process.

Oxidation Affects Taste: One of the first things to know about tea processing is that oxidation affects the taste. The more oxidation that tea undergoes, the milder the taste of the tea. However, more oxidized tea is less likely to impart health benefits than one that has not been oxidized heavily. Green teas are not as oxidized as black teas, which is why they offer up so many great health benefits.

While you might enjoy the taste of an oxidized tea, like a black tea, you will likely be cutting back on the tea's nutritional value in a significant way. You might also enjoy: Tips to Help You Prevent Injury While Sitting at Your Desk All Day . Amino Acids Affect Taste and Health Benefits: Teas offer up amino acids, which are great for taste and great for your health. Teas exposed to less sun during processing will keep more of their health benefits when made into tea.

When you are picking out a green tea or a fruit tea versus a black tea, this is important. Amino acids are very high in fruit teas and green or white teas due to processing choices which keep them out of the sun. You might also enjoy: Best Stretches if you Sit in Front of a Computer All Day . Polyphenols: This is another health component of tea that is found in highest quantities in green teas. These teas are picked early and have a good balance of amino acids, allowing for good taste without lost nutritional value.

Lower catechins (a type of polyphenol) means less bitterness and a healthier tea overall. Buying your tea from a tea shop instead of at the grocery store can help you weed out the kinds of teas you want to avoid due to their lack of health benefits. Boutique tea shops will know what the amino acid content is of each tea they sell. They will also know if the tea has been heavily oxidized or not while it was being made.

As a good rule of thumb, less oxidized teas will be a better choice if you are trying to take advantage of the health benefits offered by any tea. A balance of teas in your daily diet can help you enjoy a black tea for morning and pick me up while balancing this choice out later in the day with a delicious and healthy green tea. Tea processing is amazingly complex, and there are so many varieties out there that you will never get tired of trying them all until you find your favourites! You might also enjoy: Best Tasting Herbal Teas ..