Earl Grey tea
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807 and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. During his time as ambassador to China, he accidentally added Bergamot essential oil to black tea and created a tea cup with the most special and fresh Bergamot flavor. Since there, Earl Grey tea was born.
Earl Grey tea is a combination of Ceylon black tea with Bergamot orange peel essential oil.
Bergamot orange belongs to the citrus family fruits. Bergamot peel is green like lemon peel but its shape likes an orange. The quality of Bergamot oranges depends on the growing area. Bergamot oranges are most grown in southern Italy, Calabria.
The Bergamot essential oil content can be varied so that Earl Grey teas have flavors with range from Mediterranean bitter orange to Southeast Asia lemon.
Benefits from Earl Grey tea
+ The fluoride in Earl Grey may help prevent cavities and tooth decay
+ Bergamot essential oil has a gentle scent, that may help improve the person's mood and help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
+ Bergamot contains essential enzymes like HMGF (Hydroxy methyl glutaryl flavonones) that help prevent heart disease. And bergamot is considered as good as statins which help fat reduction and improve heart health.
+ Earl Grey tea contains theaflavins, which help improve digestive system. Traditionally, this tea has also been used to treat colic and nausea.
+ Many studies have shown that Bergamot essential oil has incredible anti-inflammatory properties, thus Earl Grey tea help against inflammation.
However, Earl Grey tea also contains caffeine and tannins which lead to anxiety, tremors, heart palpitations when drinking on an empty stomach, and sleeplessness. Beside that, drinking too much Earl Grey tea can cause excess bergamot content to interfere with potassium absorption which can lead to a burning sensation, muscle twitching and even blurred vision.
Jasmine tea
Jasmine tea is a combination of green tea and jasmine flowers. Jasmine tea and osmanthus tea are known as the first teas of natural flowery in the history of flower tea. Jasmine flowers grow vigorously and have a strong fragrance in tropical or subtropical climates.
Around 618-907, in China, tea was considered as improving body's functions, for enhance the diversity tea's flavor, the combination of tea leaves and herbal flowers was born at this time. Due to the characteristic of jasmine being neither warm nor cold properties, jasmine is considered a herbal medicine that balances yin and yang very well. Jasmine tea helps improve metabolism, and thus it may help in weight loss.
Basically the process of making jasmine tea following
- Spreading green tea on a bamboo tray, then cover the jasmine flowers on the tea layer, later again one tea layer and one jasmine flowers layer until 5layers of tea and 5 layers of flowers in a tray.
- Incubating them for 5 hours
- Later mixing green tea and jasmine flowers together, and continue Incubating for more 7 hours.
