Green Tea

Various studies have shown that to get the full benefits from green tea the average person needs to consume between 4 and 6 cups of it daily that have been steeped for 4-6 mins.

If you don't like it why drink it? There are green tea suppliments out there that will give the same benefits.

Try some adding some honey. I drink green tea daily, but I don't do the flavored kind I use the pure green tea. It does taste a little like hot hay water but the honey helps.

If you want to get the full benefits you should probably switch to loose-leaf, caffeinated, unflavored tea:

A 2007 report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) compared foods for catechin flavonoid content. They reported that no other beverage comes close to the catechin content in regular brewed green tea. They found that one hundred millimeters of green tea when brewed contains 126 mg of catechins while brewed oolong tea only contains 50 mg and brewed black tea only 28 mg. The report also revealed that regular green tea is the healthiest but the more processed tea becomes the more nutrients it loses. This includes the decaffeination process (56 mg) and flavoring process (43 mg), which reduces the catechin content significantly. If you are consuming instant or bottled green tea sources, most contain a disappointing 12 mg of catechins. Since Red wine contains 11 mg and unsweetened apple juice provides 6 mg, perhaps bottled or instant green tea isn't worth the cost or the hype it receives for the health benefit it offers.
http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=green_tea_benefits_fact_vs_fiction


I didn't know loose leaf/brewed was better so I'll be switching!

Try some adding some honey. I drink green tea daily, but I don't do the flavored kind I use the pure green tea. It does taste a little like hot hay water but the honey helps.

Love this, you nailed it, but you learn to love it. May help that I grew up on a ranch!

Try some adding some honey. I drink green tea daily, but I don't do the flavored kind I use the pure green tea. It does taste a little like hot hay water but the honey helps.

Love this, you nailed it, but you learn to love it. May help that I grew up on a ranch!

Ha ha, yes I had horses growing up and it reminds me of the way the stables smelled!!

try a little honey or a dash of truvia sweetener. It makes a world of difference!

I stick in an herbal peppermint tea bag with the green tea and make 2-3 cups at a time. I steep for 5-10 min to get the full strength of the mint. The mint also helps with hunger and digestion. Sometimes I change it up and use a lemon tea bag. I found that orange didn't work well, but that may be my preference. Good luck.

Honey is a good choice, but I wouldn't recommend store bought honey for there is no nutritional benefit to it. Try getting local honey from a farmer's market.

I love green tea, do you drink it over ice, that is how I like it and I mix it with Tazo passionfruit, its so good, my opinion. If you want to treat yourself go to starbucks and get half green half passionfruit iced with a couple of splenda's depending on how sweet you like it or what size your get. Otherwise they do have lots of different flavors of green tea bags, I have tried many one of my favorites is green tea pomegranate. Good luck.

It's an acquired taste... but I do prefer the loose leaf. Yogi Slim Life tea is green tea with blueberry and as noted above is pretty good. I like Archer Farms organic green tea - it has larger leaves. I brew mine for about 10 minutes to get the most out of the tea. If you don't like it just let it cool a bit and drink it down quickly like medicine.

Make an 'Arnold Palmer' with it - brew your tea then mix with lemonade over ice.

Local honey is great - helps with allergies too!

There are supplements out there but you would need to research to make sure it's a good one and not loaded with fillers.

I agree that is an acquired taste, like coffee. But I've been drinking a lot lately and it does seem to help curb my appetite. My sister bought me a tea set from TEAVANA this xmas. I LOVED the Fruta Bomba Green Tea from there. I tastes better than regular green tea. Don't know if someone already commented this as well: try making it into iced tea if you don't like hot tea.

Some things that can make a big difference when brewing tea.

1. Bagged tea tends to be made from poorer quality tea leaves when compared to loose leaf teas.
2. When using loose leaf teas, don't pack them into a tiny tea ball. They need room to spread out to brew properly.
3. Use water that is the correct temperature, if it's too hot it will scorch the leaves making the tea bitter. An easy cheat is to place 1-2 ice cubes on the leaves and poor the hot water over the ice cubes. It protects them from being scorched by the hot water and cools it down to the correct temperature.
4. Make sure to brew the tea for the correct amount of time. If you brew it too long, it can also cause the tea to become bitter. To make the tea stronger, add more tea leaves and brew for the same amount of time.

Hope this helps.

I tend to grab an iced green tea from starbucks (unsweetened of course!) or use their Zen tea bags. Zen is a blend of lemongrass, mint and green tea so it helps mellow out the flavor.

I add some Ideal sweetener to my tea. Usually just a half packet, enough to give it a little sweetening.

I love how on top of this post there is a green tea add lol. I love my tea's not green but any other. Just add a little splenda, stevia whatever you use where you live to sweeten it up a bit.