Superfood: Black Tea
posted by Kamil
Black Tea:Camellia Sinensis and Camellia Assamica (with over 250,000 varitals)
This is the first of a series on superfoods, foods that can improve your health just by eating them, and they are more than just blueberries and yogurt. Superfoods, are foods that contain high levels of antioxidants, phenols, flavinoids, soluble fiber, and fatty acids.
Why is tea a superfood?
- It contains no calories
- It contains Fluoride (the same fluoride that prevents cavities)
- It contains Flavinoids (this is where tea gets its antioxidant properties)
- It contains Phenols
I used to drink tea everyday, however, lately I have been drinking coffee instead. With the raging debates about the benefits of tea vs. coffee it makes for a difficult choice about including or excluding one or the other. So instead of chosing, we try to include both, if not by drinking it then by cooking with it.According to Pratt (SuperFoods Rx) , tea is supposed to help in a lot of ways such as lowering blood pressure, risk of stroke, preventing, skin damage, cataracts, osteoporosis, and it is antiviral, anti-inflamtory, anticavity and anti-allergy.
This week, we will attempt to make our own tea based recipe. The tea we have selected is Lapsang Souchong (above), a black tea from the Fujian province of China, also called Russian Caravan tea, named after its long journey from Chinese to Russian markets; getting its smokey flavor from the campfires it endured along the way.
This tea is no doubt very smoky, not sure i would want to drink it, rather it will be used in creating a BBQ sauce for a chicken recipe posted later this week.
