TeaChat

I'm trying to drink more and more tea because of it's health benefits... but I honestly do not like the taste of tea at all. I've tried half a dozen different kinds, and tried them with honey, sugar, or peppermint.

But still I'm trying to drink more of it. It's real convenient where I work, and hopefully it will become an acquired taste.

Until then, though, I've started using multiple tea bags per cup. It's easier to down 8oz of tea that 24oz. but I still want the 3 cups worth of benefits. Does it make a difference at all? Or is it no different than the standard serving?

Also, is there anything bad with consuming the contents of the tea bag itself? I've considered dumping the teabag straight into the blender when I make my morning smoothies.

Thanks for the advice,
Robert

Dude you are in the wrong place.

Wow, first of all, if you are using three teabags to 8 oz. of water, I'm surprised you can even gag the stuff down.

Try using one bag to 8 oz. and see if you like it better. Or get some good loose-leaf and try it. You can get samples from our host Adagio for a pretty low price.

I suppose you could use dry leaves ground up, but if you want to consume the whole leaf, the best thing to do would be to purchase some Matcha. This is Japanese powdered green tea, and it is the entire leaf. You get all the benefits and more of just drinking plain infused tea. It's great to use in smoothies, ice cream, etc. If you are going to use it as a supplement to smoothies, I would recommend buying restaurant-grade matcha. It's not as "fancy" as matcha for tea ceremonies, so it's less expensive.

True- tea IS good for you, but it's not going to change your health for the better on it's own, studies have proven that people who drink tea are healthier not because of the TEA specifically but because of the MINDSET that the average tea drinker possesses... what I mean by this is- people who drink tea tend to *enjoy* living healthy, earth friendly, organic lifestyles... they tend to be less stressed because of their attitude and as we all know, all of those things combined lead to better health.

So in conclusion, don't drink tea to be healthy- it won't work, LIVE to be healthy and enjoy tea because it is a wonderful relaxing beverage and it will HELP.

As a suggestion, you probably are just drinking cheap tea, as a rule- most supermarket teas or almost everything you buy in a teabag is cheap/bad quality tea, buy some loose leaf teas online, spend 5 minutes learning how to brew it properly, and the chances that you will actually LIKE it will increase by quite a bit

Or if you find that after trying loose leaf tea (there are tons of different kinds!) you don't care for the beverage, you can get supplements in the form of pills if you are after EGCG- I think that's the supplement they make from green tea extract.

May I ask what type of tea bags you are using, and what it is about tea you currently don't like? There's a big variety of tea out there- it would be great if we could help you find one that you enjoy.

I recently read of research that showed that your body is less efficient at taking up the nutrients in food if you do not like the taste of the food. I'll try to find that article again.

I would also second the idea that it is the totality of your lifestyle that determines health, not one thing you eat. You can take high qualilty vitamins every day, but if your diet is exclusively doughnuts and soft drinks, you're not really going to be healthy.

Wow, what a post! No offense, but this sounds like desperation to me.
Eating the contents of a tea bag @.@

Overdosing on tea is not a good thing either, (like coffee) it washes out magnesium from your body and long term deficiency can lead to serious heart problems

kingrobert wrote:I'm trying to drink more and more tea because of it's health benefits... but I honestly do not like the taste of tea at all.

Maybe you're not making it right. Read the directions.

Rabbit got it right when he said:

rabbit wrote:May 18th 10
True- tea IS good for you, but it's not going to change your health for the better on it's own, studies have proven that people who drink tea are healthier not because of the TEA specifically but because of the MINDSET that the average tea drinker possesses... what I mean by this is- people who drink tea tend to *enjoy* living healthy, earth friendly, organic lifestyles... they tend to be less stressed because of their attitude and as we all know, all of those things combined lead to better health.

Oh,

And Congratulations on your first post.

It is the pause that occurs during the sips of a small cup of good tea. The blank, silence, amongst the noise, for a few moments.

Therefore, tea is good for health.

I personally love the feeling I get after I drink tea. It's kind of like a nice, calm feeling.

3 bags per 8 oz would make a bitter, strong concoction. Try buying loose leaf or using only one bag per 8 oz. It is also possible that you're steeping too long. If you Google steeping times, there are varying times and temperatures for different teas.

I have read that black teas are best steeped for 3-7 minutes. Oolong can be steeped for up to 9 minutes. Rooibos is best (IMO) after 15 minutes. You don't need to follow those guidelines, but they tend to make the tea taste better.

Downing the tea for the benefits? Why not take vitamins, or raid the health food store? :p You won't get benefits from tripling the "dosage."

If you want to "concentrate" tea, try buying Starbuck's Tazo chai tea concentrate. You can add it to boiling water for a quick cup. I'm unfortunately not a fan of chai.

Victoria wrote:Dude you are in the wrong place.

On a serious note, I have concentrated tea and use it in my cooking all the time, I'm not really sure if it has any health effects, but I've got alot of the stuff and I can't just let it go to waste

rabbit wrote:On a serious note, I have concentrated tea and use it in my cooking all the time, I'm not really sure if it has any health effects, but I've got alot of the stuff and I can't just let it go to waste

I do the same - if I want to put tea in a bread recipe, or whatever, I'll make it pretty much as strong as I can, because it dilutes out into whatever I'm making. Heck, sometimes I just use crushed tea leaves (earl grey cookies - yum!)

rabbit wrote:On a serious note, I have concentrated tea and use it in my cooking all the time, I'm not really sure if it has any health effects, but I've got alot of the stuff and I can't just let it go to waste

But that's more to add flavor when it comes to cooking, not quite the same as trying to concentrate tea to consume as much of it as possible for health benefits

Concentrated tea for recipes ... isn't that simply tea power ? Like sencha tea power (not matcha !) ?

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