Tea originates from China. It is a stimulating drink which was gain it names later. The first written information about it is dated for 2700 and can be found in China's chronicles. It was used mainly as a medicine, but later it got popular as a daily drink.

There are loads of different types of tea. Teas are ranked not only according to the plant from which it was produced but also levels of leaf's fermentation (oxidation) and time of that process. Let us go over some details of making tea process.

Green tea. It leaves the oxidation process quickly. It is stopped after shortest possible time. It is produced from leafs picked up early in the morning and dried with steam or very gently using roasting pan. Thanks to that it keeps all the beneficial nutrients, minerals and vitamins. When it comes to exact numbers the oxidation takes just two to three days.

Black tea's leafs are fully oxidized and it takes around from two weeks to even full month.

Pu-erh is called most mature form of tea. Leafs are passed and after that they go under the second oxidation which is a process pretty similar to one in which you produce compost. During that time the humidity and temperature are monitored very cautiously. Usually this tea is cured for a long periods of time, boiled and compressed into a tiles.

Most popular teas, green and black one have a great therapeutic value yet they should be chosen according to your needs.

Black Tea

Therapeutic properties of black tea are well known since ancient times. Flavonoids that are in tea acts as a neutralizer for excess amounts of free radicals which can damage body cells and effect in cardiovascular issues and cancer. Tea flavonoids are proven to reduce the spread of atherosclerosis. All these is effect of anti-oxidants. It is a fact that drinking even on cup of tea per day reduce risk of heart attack by 44 percents so if drinking tea is not in your habit it is one you may want to introduce in your life.

There are a lot more of convincing statistics about black tea. Most of them come from different experiments on subject of tea flavonoids. Speaking about cholesterol it is enough that:

> You drink one cup a day and it level will fall by 6 percents.

> Two cups a day effects in lowering that level by 6 more percents.

> drinking 3 to 7 cups lower the cholesterol level even by 20%.

These percents are right for people who do not drink tea at all.

Two cups a day reduce the risk of getting kidney stones by 30% and in addition tea has antibacterial properties which keeps our immune system's defence on a proper level.

In the same time we should remember that drinking too much of tea is not the best thing to do as some of teas contain also caffeine. I advice you not to drink more than 10 cups of black tea in a day because it leaves iron. Vegetarians, children, people with anemia and woman that are expecting baby should drink just a little bit of it.