Coffee is not everyone’s cup of tea. Half the world is addicted to coffee but British, and some South Asians hold their tea very dear. Most people need a fix of caffeine to function all day properly, but if you are not a coffee person, tea will do the job for you. Everyone has their way of making tea but do you ever question if your way was the healthiest? If you haven’t, science just figured out the best way to brew your perfect cup of tea, and it uses the microwave oven.
Researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia conducted a study and deduced a scientific way of extracting the best from a teabag and preparing a cup with the perfect amount of caffeine and antioxidants. The best household method for making tea is simple:
- Boil 200ml of water and brew a tea bag for half a minute
- Microwave the cup of tea along with the teabag for a full one minute at 500-watt power.
- Dunk the tea bag like you usually do and pull it out.
Tada! Your perfect cup of green tea is ready. According to the research, the traditional method of dunking the tea bag in boiled water only extracts 62% of catechins, 76% of caffeine, and 80% of theanine. The results of the microwave process are quite surprising as this extracted about 80% of catechins, 92% of caffeine, but there was no effect on extraction of theanine. Whether or not, it makes too much difference in taste; you sure are going to get the health benefits of catechin antioxidant, and the productivity boost of caffeine.
Catechin is a plant-based antioxidant, a natural phenol found in tea and some fruits like apples and pears. Green tea and white tea have the most amount of catechin, which is almost 10-40 mg a cup. The antioxidant benefits of tea are greater than even a serving of broccoli, spinach, carrots, or strawberries. The antioxidant even surpasses Vitamin C and beta-carotene by nearly ten times. If you are a coffee addict, you might want to consider moving to green tea, or perhaps just add one serving to your daily routine. Not to forget everything is good in moderation as overconsumption of catechin may cause renal failure and anemia.
We just told you the healthiest way of making a cup of green tea, but there is another way the South Asians (Pakistan, India) do it. They just drop tea leaves in boiling water, sometimes with a little cardamom and let the leaves do their magic.
