Eat Shrink And Be Merry

No doubt you’ve heard about the health benefits of drinking green and black teas—lots of antioxidants in both, and green tea is also thermogenic, meaning it helps boost your metabolism. But if health benefits plus great taste are what you’re after, better make room for another tea colour in your cupboard: White tea!

This tea comes from the young leaves of the tea plant, before the buds have fully opened. The young leaves are covered in fine, silvery hair, which gives white tea its name. Apparently, they’re painstakingly hand-picked only two days of the year, making the harvest small, the demand high and the tea rare and a bit pricey. I think it’s worth it, though, as you’ll soon discover…

One of the best purveyors of premium teas in the world is The Republic of Tea. My sister and I both love their teas, their packaging and their whole philosophy of doing business. For instance, they have a Minister of Tea (the big Prez), Minister of Leaves (Marketing), Minister of Enlightenment (Media Relations), and a Minister of Innovation (website). It’s that kind of original thinking that gets my attention. Most importantly, their teas taste marvelous. As an added bonus, the decorative tin cans look great in your kitchen! (One of our favourites is Man Kind Blueberry Green Tea. Yum!)

Anyway, here’s what The Republic of Tea has to say about white tea and its amazing health properties: White tea has more disease-preventative antioxidants than any other kind of tea, including green. That’s because it’s the most minimally processed, so it retains the highest level of powerful polyphenols. White tea has 10x the antioxidants found in vitamin E and 20x the antioxidants found in vitamin C. Wow! Another advantage: white tea is lower in caffeine than both black and green teas, at only 15 mg per 250 mL cup of white tea compared with 20 mg in green tea and 40 mg in black tea. So if you like to savour a nice, hot cup of tea in the evening, no worries about white keeping you awake. Plus, tooth be told, white tea is far less likely to stain your teeth than drinking coffee or other tea varieties.

I like the taste of white tea better than green. White tea tastes a little sweeter, and it doesn’t have that grassy taste that I detect in green tea. The Republic of Tea has some delicious blends including Honeydew Melon, Pineapple Guava and my personal favourite, Persimmon White Tea. You’ll find white tea varieties at your local health food store or at specialty food or tea stores. A tin of 50 white tea bags from the Republic of Tea costs about $14.00. That might seem pricey compared to good ol’ Salada or Red Rose, but there’s no comparison as far as quality and health benefits. Fourteen dollars is the price of buying a half-decent bottle of wine, and hey, the tea will last you a lot, lot longer than that bottle, and it won’t give leave you with a sore noggin’ the next morning. In fact, only good things will come from your investment.

You can check out white tea for yourself at www.republicoftea.com.