By Marilou Shea

Did

you know that for every cup of coffee consumed daily in the world three cups of

tea are consumed? Or that next to water, tea is the most consumed beverage the

world over? There are more than 1,500 varieties of tea varying in color and

taste. Consumers today are beginning to think of tea with the same devotion as

coffee, especially here in the United States, primarily because of its vast

assortment, applications and perceived health benefits. 

Green

tea has been the darling of the industry for the last few years, going from

health food co-op groupies to mainstream consumers in a nano-second, thanks to being featured on the Dr. Oz

show and in brand giants like Arizona, Lipton, Gold Peak, Fuze, Nestea, Teas’

Tea, Peace Tea, and Honest Tea, just to name a few.

But

there’s more to the tea trends than just the green kind.

One

nifty one is that we may see a new neighbor joining the local coffee scene in

the form of a “tea bar.” Craft tea blending, nitro tea on tap and even tea

cocktails will start appearing in some of your favorite hip, urban locales. You

could even consider becoming a tea-tender.

As

I mentioned in last month’s column, Kombucha, or fermented tea, is seeing a

comeback from the 1970s the likes of which is segmenting an already wildly

segmented industry. Gut-conscious consumers are driving the birth of a variety

of home-grown Kombuchas at boutique/lifestyle hotels and chef-driven, trendy

food spots. The goal is to consume the least-processed beverages while

increasing probiotics which in turn pleases the immune system.

While

18- to 34-year-olds in particular love their ready-to-drink tea, all tea

segments — including traditional, ready-to-drink, food service and specialty —

have grown in recent years. According to the U.S. Tea Association, the total

U.S. wholesale value of the tea industry has more than quadrupled — from $1.8

billion in 1990 to $10.8 billion in 2014 and the upward trajectory continues to

climb. 

The

root of tea is steeped in folklore, economics and politics. According to

scholars, the origins of the very first tea cup can be found in the Yunnan

province of China in 2737 BC. As legend has it, Chinese emperor Shen Nung, also

a reputable herbalist, was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled

water for him to drink. Several leaves flew from a Camellia sinensis tree into

the water, the emperor liked what he tasted and voila!

The

Buddhist monks introduced tea to Japan. Portuguese and Dutch traders and

missionaries brought it to Europe from the island of Java. Although tea is

often associated with the Brits, it really wasn’t until a tea-addicted

Portuguese princess married a British royal and introduced it at court in 1658

that the Brits finally began their own love affair with the beverage known at

the time as “China Drink,” called by the Chinese “tcha,” by other nations

“tay,” or “tee.” (hee!).

The

tea industry is thriving and not surprisingly many nations lay claim to it

today — from Nepal to India, from Britain to Malawi and beyond. British

companies continue to play a leading role in the world’s tea trade but neither

China nor Britain have a monopoly on the industry as they did in the

1800s. 

Although

it’s the biggest consumer of their own tea (ahem), China produces more than

18.5 percent of the world’s tea supply. The most common varietals -and easily

accessible in your local retail outlets — are green, oolong, white, flavored

and compressed teas. 

Mulanje,

Malawi, is credited with being the tea pioneer in Africa. It was the first to

commercially harvest tea in the 1880s and is responsible for tea cultivation

expansion to other African countries. Tea-producing countries in Africa include

Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa. They produce about 30

percent of world exports amounting to some 514,742 tons of made tea.

Recent

scientific research indicates that tea drinking may have direct

health benefits but “indicates” is the operative word. I spoke with a local

food industry expert and she said that many of these trends like probiotics,

antioxidants and fermented yumminess have yet to be studied by the scientific

community. Those published reports are critical to consumers because they have

proven data that supports health claims being made by a host of leaf-reading,

cup-toting organizations. So maybe we should take the health benefit claims

with a grain of sugar?

To

help de-mystify the health benefits of tea, there are two key terms to know and

understand:  antioxidants and flavonoids.

In everyday living, we expose ourselves to pollution and at times too much sun.

Free radicals arise naturally during the chemical process “in the air” and can

be bad for our health. While I’m familiar with the term from my favorite

skincare brand ambassadors wailing about free radical damage to my skin, they

are also apparently the culprits in diseases like heart disease, stroke and

cancers. To counteract those nasty free radicals, it’s been suggested that by

consistently consuming food and beverages rich in antioxidants that soak up the

free radicals helps us get back to a more healthy, natural state of being. Omm.

Tea is brimming with an antioxidant called flavonoids. According to the UK Tea

& Infusions Association, there is about eight times the amount of

“anti-oxidant power” in three cups of tea than there is in one apple. Wow.

Every time you brew a cuppa two for up to one minute, you about get 140

milligrams of flavonoids. 

To

achieve the maximum health benefits from tea, four cups of tea a day is

recommended.  Some would also say that

tea also has a soothing effect which could also qualify as a health benefit,

right? It tastes good, it’s supposedly good for you and you may have a

tea-tending job in your future. What’s not to love?

Food Love columnist Marilou Shea is an

adjunct faculty member for Columbia Basin College’s hospitality program and

Food Truck Academy, as well as the creator of Food Truck Fridays.