Monday August 25, 2008 | 3 comments
One of the biggest complaints I hear AND read from people who try green tea and don’t like it, is the taste. Let’s remember that for those inexperienced or uninformed about the proper brewing techniques, there are many ways to ruin a perfectly good cup of tea. The most common insults are using water that is too hot and/or oversteeping. Well, I have some good news for you. A researcher at Purdue, Mario Ferruzzi, has done some NIH funded research which was recently published in the Molecular Nutrition and Food Research journal:
“Catechins (pronounced KA’-teh-kins), display health-promoting qualities and may be responsible for some of green tea’s reported health benefits, like reduced risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke. The problem, Ferruzzi said, is that catechins are relatively unstable in non-acidic environments, such as the intestines, and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion.” So here’s the good news. Just squeeze some lemon into your freshly brewed tea and enjoy the increased health benefits. Ferruzzi found that citrus juice increased recovered catechin levels by more than five times.”
This is great news on multiple levels. Not only can lemon juice improve the already substantial health benefits, but it can remedy an over steeped cup of tea rather nicely. I’m sure every one of us has received a phone call/e-mail/knock at the door, interrupting us while we are in the midst of brewing some tea. Whatever the reason, we lost track of time and ended up with a bitter cup of tea. Now we have an excellent solution – squeeze a lemon or splash in a bit of orange juice and you’ll be good to go . . . or better to go, as the case may be.
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I guess the British had it all wrong. They should have been adding lemon to their green tea, not their black tea!
I agree that poor preparation probably sabotages quite a few potentially good cups of green tea – black too. But some tea can’t be salvaged no matter what you do to it, no more so than you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Perhaps another solution to consider is to buy a better grade of tea. The upfront price can seem a bit daunting, but when you break that down to a per cup price and consider that you’ll probably be able to steep each batch several times it doesn’t seem quite so formidable.
Bill – Ultimately I would have to agree with you.