As a little girl, when I was raised in Chennai, I used to really love coffee. If my mom did not keep me a large cup of the aromatic and stimulating decoction coffee ready in the morning, I would just bring the roof down!! There are probably millions out there for who the day does not start with out their first cup of coffee. I used to be one of them. Coffee brings back so many memories for me of my mom, dad, Chennai the simple life there that used to start with this delicious beverage. As time went by and I came here to settle in the US, I started having an aversion to the way coffee is consumed here in the US. Its lackluster way of preparation (without adequate milk and sugar), the dark blends available here along with the high amounts of caffeine that it had just deterred me from coffee and switching to tea instead.
Tea or rather ‘Chai’ is a popular Indian hot drink that is basically a spiced black tea. The recipes for chai vary quite a bit. Most chai recipes use a blend of cloves, ginger, cardamom, and peppercorn. The result is a very unique and stimulating flavor. The word ‘chai’ actually just means tea in several eastern languages. ‘Masala’ means spice so masala chai to Indians simply means ‘spiced tea’. Evidence seems to suggest that chai became popular during the English colonial period of India’s history. I make chai with sugar, milk and some cardamom and ginger. Just boil all the ingredients together. The milk, sugar, water, spices and tea, are all boiled together at the same time, then the liquid is strained afterwards.
So, while tea drinking is embellished with great ceremony in such places as India, China, and Great Britain, I think that in the more hurrying culture of the U.S., tea is viewed as just another beverage. Americans drink mostly iced tea. And as you would have guessed, the brew is much less popular than soft drinks, beer, coffee, milk, fruit beverages, or bottled water. I want to raise awareness that drinking tea-hot or iced-may be an easy, pleasurable way to get some serious health benefits. A number of recent studies add support to earlier findings about the benefits of tea and reveal some possible new ones. The evidence for those benefits is strongest for green tea.
Some obvious benefits include,
- Stronger bones
- Healthier heart
- Improved arteries
- Cancer fighter
Me and my husband now love Indian tea and drink a lot of it. At the same time I would like to throw some light on green tea. The several health benefits of green tea have been attributed to the antioxidants it contains, which are largely destroyed when green tea leaves are processed to produce black tea.
Okay, let me backtrack here. There are three types of tea Black, Oolong, and Green tea. The difference between the Green tea and the others is that green tea is not fermented, thus keeping in the powerful antioxidants lost in the fermenting process. Sometimes I just sip Green tea all day at work and enjoy that experience equally as our Indian chai.
Summing Up
Tea components clearly influence many cellular functions. Green tea contains a higher concentration of, and resulting protective effect from polyphenols than fermented black or partially fermented oolong teas. But nevertheless, evidence of tea’s beneficial properties continues to accumulate. We should consider tea as an important part of a healthful diet.
