Tips on Drinking Tea

Drinking tea has become an indispensable part of tea lovers’ daily life. We all know that tea has enormous health benefits, but it also has negative effects on health if you drink tea in improper ways. Teavivre has listed the nine most common mistakes we may encounter when drinking teas, hoping it gives tea lovers a general guide to enjoy tea in a healthy way.

Drinking tea has become an indispensable part of tea lovers’ daily life. We all know that tea has enormous health benefits, but it also has negative effects on health if you drink tea in improper ways. Teavivre has listed the nine most common mistakes we may encounter when drinking teas, hoping it gives tea lovers a general guide to enjoy tea in a healthy way.

Avoid Dinking Tea on an Empty Stomach

Drinking tea on an empty stomach can upset your stomach and cause you to lose appetite. More seriously, it may even cause gastric mucosal injury, which leads to chronic gastritis. For people who rarely drink tea, if you drink tea on an empty stomach or drink too much tea in a short time, then it would be easier for you to suffer from the “tea drunk”. The symptoms for tea drunk can be varying degrees of heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea, weakness in the limbs and so on. Click to learn more about how to get rid of tea drunk.

Avoid freshly-picked teas

First flush tea leaves in spring is usually of the best quality and highest grade of tea. Because these teas have been stored for less than a month, they contain much higher levels of caffeine, active alkaloids and other aromatic substances than older teas do. This increase in chemicals can stimulate the central nervous system and stomach, which can cause one to feel inebriated. Therefore, it’s better to wait at least a half month before drinking.

Keep Your Tea Light

Taking your tea too strong will make the brewed tea contain too much caffeine which can easily cause headaches and insomnia as well as irritation and stomach problems, so be sure not to add too many tea leaves or brew it too long or in too hot of water, so that it will not be over-brewed.

Avoid Drinking Extremely Hot Tea

We often steep tea with high-temperature water, however, extremely hot water will irritate your mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach. Some studies have found that drinking tea over 69 ℃ will cause damage to your stomach. If you’re used to drink very hot liquid frequently, it will be easier to have the stomach problem and also have a higher risk of developing esophageal cancer. As so far, 60 ℃ is the most preferred temperature which is agreed by lots of scholars and tea lovers.

Avoid Drinking Geye Cha

Geye cha refers to teas has been brewed the day before, there is a great deal of bacteria bred and multiplied in it, especially when it has been stale. Geye Cha for too long, most vitamins have been lost, and the infusion of protein, carbohydrates, etc. will be bacteria, fungi breeding nourishment, so people often think Geye Cha is dad for drinking.

Avoid Drinking Spoiled Tea

Lots of tea aficionados may have a preference on collecting high quality and aged teas, but tea will go stale and moldy when it stores improperly. In fact, the moldy tea carries a variety of toxic moulds, and if you feel it’s a waste to throw away and stick to drinking moldy tea, it might cause diarrhea, or even have harmful effects to the body internally.

Do Not Drink Excessive Amounts of Tea before a Meal or Immediately after a Meal

If you drink too much tea before a meal it will not only cause the food to feel tasteless, but will also hinder the absorption of protein in the body. The best rule to go by is to not drink excessive amounts of tea for about a half hour before a meal.

The same rule applies to drinking tea after a meal. Because the tannic acid in the tea will bind with protein and iron in the food and prevention absorption of these in the body if you drink tea following a meal. Therefore you should also wait approximately a half hour after eating to partake in your tea.

Avoid Drinking Tea in Combination with Drugs

There are many different categories and types of drugs, and each of them is featured with different properties. However, tea intake does not appear to affect the absorption of all the drugs. For example, taking some kind of vitamins with tea actually would enhance the absorption of Vitamin C. But it will also have dangerous interactions if your drugs include calcium, iron, aluminum, cobalt, sedatives, hypnotics and enzymes. Therefore, it’s better to wait at least an hour after taking the drugs before drinking tea.

Recommendation for Drinking Tea in Different Seasons

Many people have got used to drinking the same kind of tea because they prefer on a certain taste. In fact, this is not the best choice for your body. In China, people always attach great attention to Yang Sheng (养生: nourishing life), and Yang Sheng should be adapt to the seasonal changes. It will bring different benefits for your body if you drink different tea in different season. Generally speaking, scented (flower) tea is recommended in spring which helps relieve fatigue, green and white tea in summer because green tea helps promote the secretion of saliva, while white tea is good for reducing body heat, oolong tea in autumn that is good for digestion and fat burning, and Ripened pu-erh and black tea in winter to keep warm.

May the tips on drinking tea can make your tea experience better.