Thread: Red Tea

Basically with any tea you have two main things:

1. Antioxidant benefits - authentic Chinese teas are probably the best way to go for that because the concentration of the "good stuff" is much greater than the teas found in grocery stores (they are mass produced so they will skimp on overall quality).
- These anti-oxidants provide a vast variety of possible benefits to your health. The actual "good stuff" are catechins, flavonoids, and theanine. Everything from reducing blood pressure, being able to breath better, reducing cholesterol, reducing the risk for certain cancers and many many more things all encompass the possible benefits that tea can provide. Research does note that because tea does not contain high levels of the "good stuff" it would take a very large amount of consumption to see any real long term effects. Moderate consumption is the way they recommend.


2. Stimulant effects - it has the methylxanthines (caffeine, theobromine, theophylline) that keep you alert and increase cognition for the duration that the tea is in your system. Some people do not like coffee so they drink tea instead. One cup of tea has roughly 1/3 - 1/2 the amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee so for someone that is worried about caffeine consumption it can help.