Jasmine Tea is made using Chinese Green, oolong tea or white tea leaves which are and then cured and the moisture removed, leaving the dried tea. It makes several hours to infuse the flowers into the tea leaves.
Jasmine tea is considered to be a specialty tea created during the Song Dynasty more than 800 years ago. It is now enjoyed all over the world, especially in China.
What are the characteristics of Jasmine tea?
Jasmine tea has a heavy scent of jasmine flowers and it is served commonly in Chinese restaurants. It has a mild flavor and is said to be good for relieving an upset stomach. It can be drunk with or without sweeteners.
Sometimes Jasmine tea actually has the whole Jasmine flower in it, which then unfolds to make a pretty addition to the tea. Loose leaf versions of this tea are said to be the best kind because the tea doesn’t have any stems or cuttings, just the whole tea leaves. You aren’t supposed to steep Jasmine tea very long or it will get bitter and ruin its mild flavor.
Where can you buy Jasmine tea?
You can usually buy Jasmine tea in tea stores, grocery stores or online. It comes in loose leaf, bags and tea balls. The quality of tea is based on how strong the base tea used to infuse the flowers of the Jasmine plant.
Health benefits of Jasmine Tea
Jasmine tea has cancer fighting properties, plus it also has a sedative like effect and aides in helping people to sleep. It has been shown to slow down cancer cells from growing (also consider banaba leaf teas). To get the most benefits from jasmine tea you should drink at least two to four cups of it every day.
Some believe that jasmine tea can help you to live longer, plus it can also lower bad cholesterol levels. It also can be used to calm you and is a very refreshing choice after a long, hard day. Both the scent of the jasmine tea and the tea itself is seen as being beneficial.
Jasmine tea also lowers bacterial growth for the types of bacterium that cause food poisoning, plus it protects the body from free radicals, which can cause damages and have been known to cause some types of cancer.
It also has been used as a weight loss aide, as well as boosting the immune system, fighting the flu and tooth decay, preventing ulcers, as well as cholera and dysentery, fighting joint pain, boosting the metabolism, and acting as an aphrodisiac.
Research supporting benefits of Jasmine tea
Jasmine tea also contains polyphenols, which research from the University of Maryland Medical Center shows helps to keep away problems such as coronary artery problems, diabetes, liver problems, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer.
In addition, according to Green Tea Health News, jasmine tea made with green tea leaves can be used to fight depression, anxiety, lower blood pressure, and treat some menopause symptoms.
When it comes to proving the ability of Jasmine tea to fight high atherosclerotic disease, biochemists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong did research on this tea and found that the polyphenol extracts in it all were able to bring down bad cholesterol LDL levels. The tests were done in 1997 and pubished in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
A study was also done by called the Okinawa Program that showed that jasmine tea was widely drunk by Okinawans and that a group of centenarians, or those over 100 years old, were credited at reaching this age partly due to drinking jasmine tea.
It is thought that the antioxidant factors of jasmine tea are to be credited for this because they destroy the free radicals that cause aging to occur.
Another study in 290095 by the Kyoto University’s Laboratory of Nutrition did research on using the scent of jasmine tea to affect the mood. Twenty-four people were allowed to smell the tea for five minutes and then tested to see if it affected them.
It was found that even that quick five minutes of smelling it that they had significant changes in their mood, as well as their autonomic nerve properties.
Side Effects of Jasmine Tea
There are, unfortunately, some side effects related to the use of Jasmine tea. It does contain caffeine, and too much caffeine can be bad for the heart. However, they do make decaffeinated jasmine tea, so if you are sensitive to caffeine, then try the decaf version.
In addition, if you drink more than a liter of jasmine tea a day, you could get too much fluoride into your system. The Linus Pauling Institute reported that drinking less than one liter of jasmine or green tea a day is, however, less likely to have this effect.
The bottom line is that jasmine tea is a fragrant and mild tasting tea that has several benefits when both drunk and smelled. It has been used for hundreds of years, especially China and Asia and is a very valuable and beneficial product.
