Tea FAQ's

Q. Where does the tea we drink come from?

A: Tea is produced today in fifty countries. Most tea comes from China, Sri Lanka and India. However, some is imported from countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Argentina, Indonesia and Turkey.

Q: Who is the largest producer of tea in the world?

A: China, with over 1,028,000 tons. India is second with at least 956,000 tons.

Q.Who drinks the most tea per capita?

A. The Republic of Ireland followed by Britain.

Q: Just how many of cups of tea do the British drink each day?

A: 165 million cups daily, or 60.2 billion per year.

Q: What about Australia?

A: Quite a lot of tea of tea is consumed in “the land down under.” 15.5 millions cups a year, or 5.7 billion cups a day were drunk in the past year. Put another way, Aussies drank 272 cups of tea per person.

Q: How does the United States rank?

A: Almost half of Americans, over 127 million, drink tea every day. That equates to more than 55 billion of cups per day. More than ¾ of tea consumed by Americans was in the form of iced black tea with the South and Northeast drinking the most.

Q: What is the difference between green tea and black tea?

A. As with all teas, both come from the camellia sinensis plant. The difference comes once tea leaves are plucked, they are left to shrivel. This allows them to become soft and malleable which makes the cutting easier. In the process of cutting, enzymes are released that expose the tea to oxidation. Green tea, having little to none of this fermentation, remains green. With black tea, on the other hand, oxidation is allowed to continue. Once the leaf is brown, it is 'fired' in an oven thus stopping the fermentation process.

Q. Is green tea better for you than regular black tea?

A. Both green and black tea come from the same plant and so have similar levels of antioxidants, albeit slightly different ones. There are various health benefits of tea depending on they type of tea.

Q: What is an antioxidant?

A: An antioxidant is a compound, which retards oxidation. In the body antioxidants can 'soak up' free radicals.

Q: What is a free radical?

A: Free radicals are unstable substances which can disrupt the body’s biochemical processes. They have been implicated in cancer and heart disease.

Q: Which antioxidants does tea contain?

A: Along with fruits and vegetables which contain vitamins A, C, and E, green and black teas are a natural source of polyphenols and flavonoids, both of which have antioxidant activity.
Green tea has a greater amount of flavonoids called catechins. Black teas, on the other hand, have greater concentrations of theaflavins (TF’s) and thearubigins (TG’s.)

Q: What do laboratory findings show?

A. Catechins act as powerful inhibitors of cancer growth by scavenging oxidants before cell injuries occur and also inhibiting the growth of tumor cells. Both green and black teas have been used to show how cancers, such as tumors of the stomach and liver, decreased in studies that involved mice.
In other laboratory experiments, the derivatives of TF’s and TR’s have been used. These are the two pigments in black tea, and they were found to be more potent in anti-HIV-1 activity than catechins.

Q: As favored by the Brits, does the addition of milk reduce the antioxidant value?

A: The addition of milk does not appear to affect the amount of antioxidants actually absorbed by the body from the tea flavonoids. 'Tannins’ are regarded by scientists as flavonoids important in tea's color and its taste. Researchers have reason to believe flavonoids are some of nature’s most potent antioxidants.

Q. How much caffeine a day is ok to drink?

A. Because tea contains only small amounts of caffeine, drinking five to six cuppas daily is considered to be only 'moderate' caffeine levels. Other components in tea contribute to the lack of effects of caffeine on tea drinkers. Amino acids, such as theanine, cause tea to be calming. Polyphenols, discussed earlier, bind the caffeine contained in tea preventing its absorption.

Q: Does tea contain the same amount of caffeine as coffee?

A: No, tea contains only half the caffeine that coffee does.

Q: Are there any side effects to drinking tea?

A: There are virtually none. Rather, tea drinking helps maintain one’s mental clarity and alertness. This is in addition to its other contributions to good health, both those known and those yet to be discovered.


Note: We welcome more tea questions. Please send us your questions to lorien@hottesttea.com and we promise to answer soon!