Wonderful & strange facts from the world of tea: Tea Facts - 3

Flavonoids & polyphenols

Tea contains health-promoting flavonoids & polyphenols.

Flavonoids protect human cells from oxidative stress, a negative metabolic state, and have an anti-inflammatory effect. The longer you leave your tea to infuse (don't overdo it :) ), the more flavonoids it contains!

Polyphenols are rich in antioxidants and therefore also have anti-inflammatory benefits - green tea is said to contain the most polyphenols.

Milk in tea

Some people (often the British) tend to add milk to black tea. Most believe that this, like adding sugar, is mainly for flavor.

In Britain, however, milk was originally added to black tea to prevent the porcelain cups from cracking. It is said that when tea was imported to Britain in the 18th century, the traditional chinaware often could not withstand the sudden heat of the tea, so milk was added first to cool the tea down. It is also thought that adding milk to tea became so popular because tea was very expensive that most people filled their cups with cheap milk and only added a dash of precious tea.

By the way: A strong cup of strong, black tea with milk is known in the UK as a "builder's tea".

Ancient tea traditions

The oldest tea leaves in the world can be found in China and are well over 2,000 years old. Remains of tea leaves were found in the mausoleum of the Jing Emperor Liu Qi. The tea found in the emperor's tomb has been described by archaeologists as "very high quality" and shows that tea traditions date back to before 141 BC, when he died.