Those who drank more than six cups of tea a day cut their risk of heart disease by a third, the study of 40,000 people found.
Consuming between two to four coffees a day was also linked to a reduced risk.
The study focused on black tea, which the Dutch tend to take straight, no sugar or milk. In general, the studies I’ve seen tend to fix heart & cardiovascular benefits to black tea; green tea’s reserved for other studies. Read on in the article for some notes on coffee, which a common-sense interpretation of the research suggests should actually hurt cardiovascular health. Of course, it’s a plant-based, very complex set of chemicals and therefore confounds common sense by interacting with the human body in complex, fascinating ways.
And– as the article notes– taking your coffee or tea while smoking a pack of cigs will probably negate any health benefits. Same for using rendered bacon fat as a sugar substitute, or drinking it from a porcelaine tea set while operating a motor vehicle at 88 miles per hour around the rim of an active volcano. Be careful out there!
So I’m slowly rolling out new pages here on TeaHawk.com, one for each of the teas I’ve got on offer. “Green Teas” and “Black Teas” are pretty much done, check them out. Informative & entertaining.
But I’ve had a case of writer’s block. And the tea that blocked me the most was the ever-pesky powdered tea, Matcha. Why, I dunno. So I just wrote some junk down in the draft and moved on to finish all the rest.
When I returned to the draft, imagine how horrified I was to find THIS:
These statements have not (yet) been ridiculed by the Food & Drug Administration. The anti-health benefits of matcha are not intended to cause any disease.
Though it was honestly a little refreshing to see in print? Because I get weary of everyone who acts like green tea is a Fountain of Youth and not just a delicious, refreshing drink…
Just a quick note to point out that I’ve been gradually updating the site with new pages on more teas… today it’s Black Teas, ranging from Assam to Keemun Mao Feng! The pages all have links so you can buy, oh, 400 kilos of each from Art of Tea.
Pop supergroup SMAP’s Takuya Kimura (he beloved of the fairer set) has transformed into the Emperor of Tea, AKA “Tea-O.” He promotes: Asahi Golden Straight Tea and Golden Milk Tea. And even though he’s a man, he loves tea (or so he sings:)
I too am a man and I love tea. Tea-O and I should “tea-m up” haha and go down to the dump and shoot some rats. Or something.
And here’s my 10-second translation of the lyrics:
[This first part is all garbled, and I just got up. Something about being a man made of steel, and when he stops his mad dash all the ladies sing:]
“What a man!”
As for what this man loves too much…
“Black tea black tea black tea sweeeeet black tea black tea black tea sweet black! tea!”
Even though I’m a man, I love black tea~
I want to be indulged by black tea~ ah!~
“Tea Emperor! Tea Emperor!” [etc]
[Some sales slogan I can't hear]
Zero [calories]!
“Tea Emperor~ Debut”
Did I shank part of the translation? Sure! I haven’t had my black tea yet. Fix it in the comments, if you plz~
ティオ！デビュー Aw, cool, foreign tongues work in my system.
******* As you may have noticed, my tea of choice for TeaHawk.com is from the Art of Tea. Mainly because their teas are Really So Fine. But there’s also this: (This Ad-looking thing, I put here because it’s a part-charity ad, not an ad ad) When you buy one of their tea blends in a [...]
It is Tuesday! Rains falls. Like tea. Cold, unbrewed Tea. And I have ill tidings of bad joy from all over the world: *** FIRST, the prices of tea are shooting up. Up! Not heroin, they are becoming more expensive. Partially it’s the weather. And macroeconomic indicators. Heck, I don’t know, read this report from [...]
Three gems for Friday: first, tea has a long history in Korea. But it tends to get overshadowed in foreigners’ minds by the two tea giants on the sides, China and Japan. So the JoongAng Daily newspaper has a fine history of tea in Korea. Why? To mark the occasion of a visit to Jeju [...]
I’m a sucker for travel photography. So this set of pics from George Town in Malaysia, up on the island of Penang, has won me over. It’s not a big set, but photographer Derrick Chang is a pro. And I’ve made it there, so there’s a tinge of delicious nostalgia and regret to the images. [...]
These statements have not (yet) been ridiculed by the Food & Drug Administration. The anti-health benefits of matcha are not intended to cause any disease.