Anyone for Tea?

How do you take your tea? A client was telling me after becoming dairy intolerant, she was adjusting to black tea, but was drinking it very weak, but this meant it doesn’t have time to ‘brew’. Many years ago, I visited a herbalist for digestive issues and proudly told her that as I had issues with dairy products I drank ‘Quick Tea’…. made by pouring the boiling water in the pot, and very quickly pouring my tea out, before the rest of the family had theirs. She explained this…. When hot water hits the tea Tannin is released first which is acidic. It takes 4-5 minutes for Caffeine to be released which neutralises the acid and makes a ‘proper’ tasting cuppa. We should all be trying to keep our body as alkali as possible – great anti cancer benefits – so drinking a cup of acid is not a great idea. Sadly the ‘one cup tea bags’ haven’t helped as we tend to mash up the tea bag to get a decent colour in the cup, not thinking about why the original brewing process was used. So, if you like your tea black, and not strong either use one bag and twice as much water in the pot…. or make the family pot. Brew for the 5 minutes and pour yours into a cup half filled with hot water to dilute it. Perfect brewed tea, just not strong. Oh, and never say you don’t have time…Change your routine. Make the tea. Brew it while you do something else. Anything so you don’t have a cup of acid in your tummy first thing in the morning.