Tea will save you from thirst in the summer and warm it in the cold season - you just need to know which drink to prepare for different seasons to get benefit and pleasure from it.
Pick your recipe
We learned to drink tea in the summer heat from the Chinese - it is they who, according to a long tradition, quench their thirst. Chinese tea experts are sure that this drink is much better than sour milk, mineral water and cold water, and even better than soda. These cold and cool drinks only temporarily give a cooling effect, and then the body is forced to raise the temperature to balance its difference in the stomach and in other places of the body.
Best of all, green and white teas help keep the heat from the heat. Connoisseurs deduced the pattern - the less tea leaf was processed, the better it refreshes and quenches thirst, as well as invigorates and cools. These may be the first tender leaves of the tea bush (they are made of delicate varieties of green tea) or spring tea buds that are not very cooked with leaflets covered with white pile (this is white tea).
In China and Vietnam, great success was achieved in the cultivation of special summer varieties of tea. They create special conditions for growth, they are collected and processed in a special way. Central Asia, the Middle East and other places where tea bushes are grown do not particularly care about elite varieties. It is customary to drink simple tea there, but it must certainly be fresh. How to determine how much fresh tea is on a store shelf? Just look at the date of collection or packaging on the box. The sooner it was packed (April-May), the better. Summer gathering can also be bought, but it loses noticeably to spring in taste and sophistication. But tea in March or February packaging, and especially autumn packaging, does not make any sense to buy - it has already lost its freshness.
For summer tea drinking, it is better to buy one of the four main types of summer tea: white, white puer, green and tea with floral or other aroma additives. Methods of welding them vary:
- white tea should be taken a little more than usual, brewed with water at 70-75 degrees and let it brew for 5 minutes. Then cool to 60 degrees and enjoy the delicate taste. If you cool the drink to 40 degrees, the cooling effect will be greater. This tea leaves can be poured several more times;
- It is better to brew green tea in a small teapot and drink from small cups (it contains a lot of caffeine, so it’s not worth the risk). After you poured it with water of 70-75 degrees, one minute is enough for the tea to brew. It is better to drink it without sugar.
- tea with additives is a good way out in the summer heat. You can buy tea with jasmine or mint, they are best refreshing. By the way, mint can be bought, dried and added to any tea.
Regarding tea cooling, this is not a good idea. Tea "lives" just as long as it remains warm, then all its beneficial properties disappear. The ideal option is to cool the drink to room temperature and add lemon. Then the heat will definitely not be scary.
As for winter, here everything that warms and tones up is suitable, helps to transfer the cold, it should be a drink with a rich tart taste. The best drink for this time of year is ginger tea with lemon. It warms up blood, invigorates, saturates cells with vitamins. The next most popular is black tea with the addition of sea buckthorn and honey. This is a vitamin and invigorating drink, besides tasty. Sea buckthorn and honey can be added to taste.
To brew black tea, you can add cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, zest of citrus fruits, honey, as well as aromatic and medicinal herbs.
Recently, masala tea has been gaining more and more popularity - a drink made from black tea brewed in milk or cream and generously seasoned with spices. It perfectly warms, invigorates and brings great pleasure thanks to the essential oils of spices. And hot milk pleasantly envelops the throat and warms the chest.
In winter, it is also very nice to add to the usual tea leaves the herbs collected by your own hands and dried berries, as well as rose hips. You can make a kind of composition from different herbs and try different options, creating your own unique tea with different additives.