Tea is one of the most popular beverages among Chinese people, and it can be found in almost every household. Teahouses, tea shops, and the teacups you hold around all illustrate the popularity of this natural nutritional drink among the people.

You only know that tea has health-preserving effects, but you don’t necessarily know that drinking tea also depends on your constitution. Therefore, drinking tea should also vary from person to person, otherwise it will only "dishelp" health preservation.

Six major misunderstandings about drinking tea.

1. Drink tea regardless of physical constitution

There are many types of tea, which can be roughly divided into unfermented tea, semi-fermented tea and fermented tea. Each type of tea has different suitable groups of people.

Drinking tea regardless of your physical constitution may cause some discomforts:

Green tea: It is rich in tea polyphenols and caffeine, which is irritating to the stomach. People with weak stomachs should drink less green tea, especially not on an empty stomach, otherwise the phenomenon of "tea drunkenness" may occur. Such people can choose stomach-warming black tea, or add milk and brown sugar to the tea soup.

Scented tea: Suitable for women to drink, especially women before and after menstruation or during menopause. Drinking scented tea can relieve irritability.

Oolong teas such as Tieguanyin and Wuyi Rock Tea: have good effects on lowering blood lipids and aiding digestion. They can also be drunk when staying up late to refresh and relieve fatigue.

2. Drink the same tea all seasons
If you want to use tea to maintain your health, you should not drink only one kind of tea all year round, but choose tea according to the season.

Spring: It is suitable to drink scented tea (such as jasmine tea). Scented tea is sweet and cool, with aromatic and pungent air. It not only helps dissipate the cold air in the body, but also promotes the rise of Yang Qi, making people feel refreshed.

Summer: Suitable for drinking green tea. Because green tea is cold in nature, it can best remove internal heat, produce body fluids, quench thirst, digest food and resolve phlegm.

Autumn: It is more suitable to drink oolong tea because the tea is moderate in nature, neither cold nor hot, which helps to eliminate residual heat in the body. It also has the functions of moisturizing the skin, moisturizing the throat, promoting fluid production, and clearing accumulated heat in the body to relieve autumn dryness.

Winter: It is advisable to drink warm black tea. The tea is sweet and warm in nature, which can nourish Yang Qi. It is also rich in protein and sugar, which can enhance cold resistance and aid digestion.

3. Brew a handful of tea for a day

On the one hand, if you brew the tea too many times, you won’t be able to taste the aroma anymore.

On the other hand, soaking in water with higher temperature for a long time will cause the vitamins, tea polyphenols, flavonoids and other nutrients in the tea to be oxidized and degraded, and the health care effect will be greatly reduced.

Suggestion: Use a small teapot or a teacup with a filter to brew tea to separate the water from the tea. Tea leaves are generally brewed 4 to 5 times or replaced when they lose flavor.

4. Don’t wash the old tea

Most of the tea or oolong tea is aged tea, especially Pu'er tea cakes, the older they are, the stronger the aroma.

This type of tea usually needs to be washed quickly (10 to 20 seconds) with boiling water, and then the tea water is poured out. It can not only wash the tea, remove surface impurities, but also heat the tea to help the tea aroma evaporate.

Some people are reluctant to throw away the first brew, but the taste is not good. This approach is not worth the gain.

5. Tea scale is not clear

Tea scale is formed by the oxidation of tea polyphenols in tea leaves and metal elements in tea rust. It is a metal chelate.

Although there are no relevant studies that have confirmed that tea stains are harmful to health, from a hygienic point of view it is still recommended to wash off tea stains in time. Tea stains can be easily washed away with toothpaste or salt water.

6. Tea should be brewed with boiling water and drunk while it is hot.

Not every type of tea needs to be brewed with boiling water:

It is best to use freshly boiled water for dark tea, black tea, and oolong tea, as the tea aroma will be stronger.

It is suitable to brew green tea with water of 80℃~85℃ for 2~3 minutes. It is best to brew and drink it now. Green tea is relatively delicate. If it is brewed in boiling water, the polyphenols in it will be destroyed. Not only will the tea soup turn yellow, but the aromatic substances will also be lost.

Reminder: It is not recommended to drink tea while it is hot, as it can easily burn the gastric mucosa and oral cavity. Let the tea brew for a while before drinking it.

Eight kinds of tea are best not to drink.

Not just drinking tea is good for your health. Some teas or drinking them incorrectly can even harm your health. Try not to drink them.

1. Strong tea

Strong tea contains a large amount of caffeine, theophylline, etc., which is very irritating to the gastrointestinal tract. After drinking it, it can cause insomnia, headache and other discomforts, and some people may also feel vomiting.

Drinking strong tea for a long time can also hurt your bones. American scientists have found that people who drink 5 cups of strong tea a day have a 70% higher risk of hip (pelvis) fractures than those who do not drink strong tea; those who drink more than 7 cups of strong tea a day have a relative risk of more than 80%.

2. Moldy tea

Tea becomes moldy because it is contaminated by microorganisms such as Penicillium and Aspergillus. The tea soup brewed from moldy tea has no tea aroma. Drinking it will cause certain damage to the human body, such as dizziness, diarrhea, and even necrosis of important organs.

Generally, white mildew spots can be seen on the surface of damp and moldy tea. If you smell it deeply, it will have a damp and moldy smell, especially when brewing. Tea should be stored in a dry place to prevent mildew.

3. Mixed flavor tea

Tea contains terpenes and has a porous structure, which makes it easy to absorb odors. After being placed together with other smelly things for a period of time, tea can easily change its flavor. Some smells contain toxins, such as paint smell, camphor smell, etc., which can cause harm to the human body.

When storing tea, try to isolate food with peculiar smell to prevent odor transfer. Special attention should be paid to the fact that tea leaves of different grades and varieties should also be stored in categories.

4. Brew tea for a long time

If the brewing time is too long, not only will the tea soup be dark in color, taste bad, and lose its tasting value, but also because the vitamins, amino acids, etc. in the tea leaves will be reduced due to oxidation, the nutritional value of the tea soup will be greatly reduced. In addition, if the tea soup is left for too long, it is easily contaminated by the surrounding environment. The number of microorganisms in the tea soup is large, which is very unhygienic.

5. Raw tea

Raw tea refers to roasted green tea that is dried directly without rolling. This kind of tea contains basically the same ingredients as fresh leaves, with a serious greenish flavor.

Elderly people who drink this tea are highly irritated to the gastric mucosa and are prone to stomach pain; young people may also feel stomach discomfort after drinking it, which is commonly known as "stomach scraping".

It is best not to drink this kind of raw tea directly. You can put it in an oil-free iron pot and fry it slowly over a slow fire to remove the green air. You can drink it after a slight chestnut aroma develops.

6. Over-boiled tea

Tea is generally brewed with boiling water, but it should not be drunk when it is too hot. Otherwise, it will burn the oral and esophageal mucosa, cause ulcers, and may induce oral cancer and esophageal cancer over time.

A new study published in the International Journal of Cancer states: Compared with those who hardly drink tea or like to drink herbal tea, people who drink more than two cups of tea at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius a day are 90% more likely to develop esophageal cancer.

7. Burnt flavored tea

Over-roasting tea leaves during the production process will produce a burnt taste. The effective nutrients of the tea leaves and certain components that determine the taste of the tea leaves are greatly damaged, and it may also contain certain carcinogens. Therefore, whether from a nutritional perspective or a food safety perspective, burnt-flavored tea is not suitable for drinking.

8. Overnight tea

Because overnight tea has been left for too long, trace amounts of amino acids, sugars and other substances in it will become nutrients for the growth of bacteria and mold. Not only that, tea polyphenols, vitamins and other nutrients contained in tea will also undergo oxidation reactions due to being left for too long, resulting in a decrease in the antioxidant components contained in tea, greatly reducing its nutritional value and health care effects.

These 3 types of people should drink less tea.

Although drinking tea is good, it is not suitable for everyone. It is best for the following three types of people to drink less tea.

1. Gastric ulcer patients

People suffering from gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer or chronic atrophic gastritis are best not to drink tea, especially strong tea or tea on an empty stomach.

The caffeine and tannic acid contained in tea can irritate the gastric mucosa, promote gastric acid secretion, and aggravate ulcer wounds. If you drink strong tea regularly, it may worsen your condition.

People who usually have excessive gastric acid secretion are not suitable to drink Pu'er tea and black tea, as these two teas have relatively high caffeine content.

2. People suffering from insomnia or neurasthenia

Caffeine stimulates the nerve center. If you usually have symptoms such as insomnia or neurasthenia and are sensitive to caffeine, it is best to stop drinking tea or coffee after 3 pm to avoid affecting your sleep at night.

3. People with arrhythmia

Caffeine can speed up the heartbeat, cause tachycardia, and even palpitations, which is a potential threat to patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

If some people usually have arrhythmia, or are particularly sensitive to tea or coffee, drinking tea on an empty stomach may cause dizziness, palpitations and other uncomfortable symptoms, increase the burden on the heart, and make the condition more serious.

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