What is added to tea, the benefits and harms of additives. What to add to tea? Versatile Herbal Tea Blends

Tea can rightfully be considered one of the most ancient drinks. It is believed that it was discovered in China long before our era. It was originally used as a medicine and later became widespread as a drink. Over time, its taste becomes boring and people add various herbs and fruits to tea for taste and aroma. These tasty and fragrant additives make tea completely unusual and allow everyone to come up with their own, individual taste. What is added to tea?! We will look at the most popular ingredients that make up the TOP tea additives.

1. Mint
Well, here’s the thing, probably everyone in our country drank mint tea. It perfectly relaxes and calms the nerves. In addition, it also has an excellent healing effect - it normalizes the functioning of the stomach, alleviates the symptoms of acute respiratory viral infections and acute respiratory infections, and helps with coughs. Mint owes this effect to menthol, which is present in its composition and has an antibacterial as well as a tonic effect.

2. Anise
Its fruits are also often added to tea. It not only adds an indescribable aroma to the drink, but also helps with ARVI and bronchitis. If you feel an unpleasant rough sensation in your throat, or have a cough, drink anise tea and you will recover much faster.

3. Jasmine
Jasmine tea was popular even among the Chinese emperors, as it was an excellent way to cope with a general loss of strength and was an excellent tonic, raising low blood pressure and stimulating appetite. This is an excellent remedy for symptoms of chronic fatigue.

4. Rosehip
Tea with the addition of rose hips or their decoction is a truly multifunctional medicinal drug! Rose hips alone contain 50 times more vitamin C than lemons. It helps with colds and copes with fever, and has a good diuretic and diaphoretic effect. It is also good as an energy boost for the body. Thanks to antioxidants, it prevents aging of the body and supports the smooth functioning of the heart.

5. Ginger
Ginger root is usually grated and brewed with boiling water, and only then the decoction is added to tea, although some people simply throw pieces into the brew. Ginger tea perfectly invigorates, activates metabolism and warms in cold weather.

6. Calendula
Once you add calendula flowers and seeds to tea, it turns from a drink into a medicine that has a bactericidal effect and fights colds and sore throats.

7. Lavender
This is a useful addition to tea, which I often recommend to older people. And no wonder! It has a strong sedative and antispasmodic. Also, drinking tea with lavender will have a magical effect on insomnia and help with neurosis.

8. Sea buckthorn
Sea buckthorn is considered one of the healthiest berries due to the huge amount of vitamins and microelements that it contains. Tea with the addition of sea buckthorn helps with a wide variety of diseases: the digestive tract, the cardiovascular system, and high blood pressure. It also improves the overall condition of the body, improves the condition of the skin and complexion, and also helps smooth out facial wrinkles.

9. Schisandra
Schisandra is not a lemon at all, although the leaves of this plant emit a lemon-like aroma. The fruits and leaves of lemongrass make a healthy and pleasant-tasting drink, a cup of which energizes and gives a lot of strength. That is why tea with a decoction of the fruits of this shrub is popular among drivers, travelers, as well as people leading an active lifestyle. Schisandra is added to tea due to its pronounced anti-inflammatory effect and tonic effect.

10. Melissa
Melissa is in many ways similar to mint, but its aroma is lemon-mint, and its taste is refined and soft. We recommend drinking tea with the addition of lemon balm for insomnia and stress. It is useful for colds and ARVI. One cup of this tea is a huge dose of vitamins, magnesium, zinc, selenium, and copper. That is why it is recommended for children and pregnant women to drink.

The history of Russian tea culture dates back to the 17th century, when Chinese ambassadors presented Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich with several boxes of tea. Then the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan Kuchkun sent four pounds of tea. Over time, the consumption of this product ceased to be the prerogative of only august persons. He, as they say, went to the people, becoming popular among ordinary people.

However, tea drinking is associated with traditions to which medicine, until quite recently, was quite loyal, but has now declared war on them. We are talking about adding sugar, honey and milk to this tasty and aromatic drink. But why do doctors protest against these years-old habits?

Why shouldn't you add sugar?

Tea with sugar is drunk everywhere, although the attitude towards such mixing is ambiguous. Some believe that sugar improves the taste of the drink, while others believe that, on the contrary, it worsens it and the person does not feel anything other than sweetness. We won't argue about tastes. Let's look at this from a purely medical point of view, which is formulated very clearly: representatives of those nations where they prefer not to add sugar to tea are less likely to develop cancer.

True, there is an alternative point of view. Specialists who adhere to it are in the minority. They generally agree that tea with sugar is not a very healthy drink. But to a greater extent this applies to black tea. As for green tea, in their opinion, sugar does not affect its positive properties. They say it even helps to better absorb the catechins it contains.

Others offer a compromise. Do not add sugar directly to tea, but drink it with it as a snack. Or with candy. And it is imperative that a sip of the drink follows the eaten piece of sweets. But, firstly, dentists will probably object to this method. Secondly, mixing sugar with tea ingredients will happen in any case. With the difference that it is not directly in the cup, but in the stomach. So is it worth the risk then?

Nutritionists also actively object to drinking tea with sugar and sweets. Tea, they believe, in this case blurs the boundaries of what is permitted. That is, you can eat twice or even three times as much candy as without it. And this is a direct road to overweight and obesity.

Is tea compatible with honey?

There is a widespread belief that if honey is healthier than sugar (and this is true), then it is better to add it to tea. But doctors are categorically against such a combination, citing convincing arguments.

There are many useful substances in honey, but in the context of our topic we will highlight one - diastase. This is a digestive enzyme that, when it enters the human body, hydrolyzes starch, breaking it down into oligosaccharides. Apitherapists say: the higher the diastase content in honey, the more valuable it is. However, the named enzyme is completely destroyed at temperatures above 40° C. A higher temperature (60° C) completely transforms honey from an edible and medicinal product into a carcinogen. It begins the processes of converting fructose into hydroxymethylfurfural, which accumulates in the liver. Hot tea in which honey is dissolved contains a lot of this substance. And if you regularly drink such a drink, you are putting your health at serious risk. The harmful effects of hydroxymethylfurfural can provoke the occurrence of malignant neoplasms in the stomach, intestines and other organs of the digestive system.

But not only diastasis suffers from mixing hot tea and honey. Thus, the results of research by many well-known scientists confirm that at a temperature of 45 ° C, the enzyme invertase, which accelerates the hydrolysis (breakdown) of sucrose, is destroyed. At a temperature of 60-70° C, honey rapidly loses its aromatic substances. Well, at 60° C and above (note to those who like to dissolve honey in tea immediately after brewing, when the temperature of boiling water is about 80-90° C), not only enzymes are destructured, but proteins, vitamins, enzymes and other biologically active substances. From all of the above, the conclusion is: putting honey in hot tea is strictly not recommended!

Tea with milk: what's the harm?

Tea, especially green tea, contains substances beneficial to our body - catechins. They are the strongest antioxidants. Thanks to their action, free radicals are neutralized, which damage cells and can cause cancer. Catechins also prevent the development of diseases such as diabetes and heart failure. But when we drink tea with milk, unfortunately, it binds these antioxidants. As a result, barriers to these diseases disappear. With all the ensuing consequences.

But the presence of milk in tea negatively affects not only antioxidants (note: there are tens of times more catechins in this drink than in most vegetables and fruits). Such proximity can negatively affect the functioning of our vascular system. German scientists have seriously worked on the study of this phenomenon. To do this, they conducted an experiment. 16 representatives of the fair sex in good health were invited to participate. Three times a day they were given 500 ml of black tea, to which 10% skim milk was added. In addition, women were given tea without this additive, as well as hot boiled water. An important condition of the study was that the participants should not drink tea for one month before the start, between stages and after completion.

When summing up the results, experts focused on the so-called FMD effect. More precisely, a process characteristic of healthy blood vessels: with an increase in blood flow, they retain the ability to relax, and blood pressure remains normal. So, the researchers measured FMD levels in the forearm before the experimental tea drinking, and then they repeated the measurements several times at equal intervals. It was found that drinking black tea significantly improved the performance of this process in all women (especially in comparison with those who drank just hot water). However, adding milk completely negated the beneficial effects of tea. Accordingly, the ability of blood vessels to relax with an increase in blood flow, at best, remained at the level preceding the study, and at worst, decreased. To be fair, we note that not all medical luminaries agree with their colleagues from Germany, which means only one thing: it is too early to talk about the completion of scientific research in this area.

Some people go even further - instead of milk, they add cream to their tea “for taste.” As in the case of sugar, we won’t argue about tastes. At the same time, we consider it our duty to warn: cream is a very high-calorie product. Therefore, this combination should not be practiced by overweight people. And do not forget that cream is a dairy product that is similarly capable of binding catechins, making our body defenseless in the face of many dangerous diseases.

What about tea with lemon?

Tea with lemon or lemon juice squeezed into it is undoubtedly useful for preventing colds. And everything would be fine, but some people are overcome by doubts: why does the presence of citrus fruit change the color of this drink? Isn’t such a “reunion” of the active components of tea and lemon harmful to our body?

We hasten to reassure you: there is no harm here. Tea owes its color to weakly ionizing acids and anions - thearubigins. When lemon juice, which is essentially an acid, gets into it, hydrogen ions begin to interfere with the ionization of thearubigins and the tea loses its usual color. It is noteworthy that theaflavins (the yellow polyphenols contained in black tea) are not involved in this process. Therefore, tea clarified with lemon has a yellowish tint.

The only taboo: lemon or its juice should not be added to hot tea. This citrus contains a lot of useful substances. It is especially rich in vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which is known for its instability. When exposed to high temperatures, these substances are completely destroyed, and the cup de facto contains a mixture of tea and citric acid. Therefore, to maximize the preservation of the beneficial components of lemon, do not add it to tea immediately. Wait for it to cool down a bit.

Tea is a healthy drink; people all over the world drink it. True connoisseurs consider tea to be a holistic drink; it contains so many aromas and flavors that there is no need to add anything to it. But people all over the world think differently. They are trying to “improve” the taste of tea, to embellish it. What is added to tea? Everyone has their own opinion on this matter. Some people can’t imagine it, some without lemon, and some drink tea only with spices or berries.

Tea with sugar

Approximately 32% of people prefer . This is customary in some places in the Middle East and Europe. And if a small amount of sugar (1-2 teaspoons) per large mug of drink can make the taste of the infusion a little more expressive, then 4 or 5 spoons will not only drown out the entire aroma and taste, but also destroy vitamin B1 contained in the tea.

It has long been customary in Rus' to drink tea as a snack; crushed sugar was used for this. Nowadays they drink tea with sweets. Such tea drinking also muffles the true taste of the drink, deprives you of the pleasure of feeling the indescribable shades of tea and experiencing the amazing aftertaste.

The attitude of scientists towards sweet tea is ambiguous. They believe that drinking black tea without sugar is healthier. Research shows that this reduces the risk of cancer. And sugar can enhance the beneficial properties of green tea. In this form, catechins are better absorbed by the body.

Tea with lemon

What can you add to tea besides sugar? Almost a quarter of all tea drinkers add lemon to their tea. They say that drinking tea with lemon and sugar began at the end of the 19th century; it was invented in Russia. This tradition has taken root; now tea with various types of citrus fruits can be found in Iran, India, Turkey, and Egypt. This is explained simply: a lemon drink perfectly quenches thirst, which is very important for hot countries. Lemon can save the taste of even the poorest quality tea.

Is this useful? There is no need to talk about the benefits, because they put a circle of lemon in a hot drink, completely destroying vitamin C, which the citrus fruit is rich in. All that remains is a subtle aroma and sourness, which adds only taste, but no benefit.

Tea with milk

About 16% of people drink tea with milk, although there may be more such people. In England, milk is always added to Indian tea; the rules for preparing the drink are passed down from generation to generation. At least a quarter of the volume of milk is poured into the cup, and then tea is only added. Sugar is not added to this drink.

Many believe that tea with the addition of milk is useful, it has a diuretic property, cleanses the kidneys, helps remove excess moisture from the body, and has a positive effect on lactation. It is recommended for infectious diseases and poisoning. Green tea cleanses the body and helps you lose weight if you add milk to it. Some scientists believe that milk has a detrimental effect on the antioxidant properties of tea. As you can see, the debate about tea drink with milk is still ongoing, research continues.

Tea with honey

Almost 11% of tea drinkers add honey to tea. We all know how healthy honey is. But when it is added to a hot drink, the diastase enzyme is destroyed and honey completely loses its properties. And when heated above 60°C, honey fructose oxidizes; oxidation products have a detrimental effect on the digestive system, causing malignant neoplasms. Honey turns into a carcinogen when heated, this is worth remembering for all lovers of this sweetness. It is better to drink tea as a bite with honey, or add it to already cooled tea.

Tea with gifts of nature

It is worth paying tribute to herbal teas.

• Most often, lemon balm and mint are added to tea. The herbs are very aromatic, they normalize blood pressure, have a calming effect, help cope with nausea, and soothe heaviness in the stomach. You can drink mint tea for any stomach discomfort. The menthol contained in mint cools in the summer heat.
• Chamomile is an equally popular medicinal plant that can be added to a drink. This tea will cleanse the body, increase sweating, and normalize intestinal function. Taking chamomile has a positive effect on the condition of the skin and hair. Excessive consumption of chamomile tea negatively affects performance and ability to concentrate.
• Rose leaves and flowers help complement the flavor experience. Rose contains vitamin P, which is beneficial for blood vessels and the heart. This tea will help reduce allergic reactions, increase stamina, and strengthen blood vessels.
• Linden is a classic herbal supplement. It is famous for its bactericidal and anti-inflammatory properties. Gives the tea a pleasant honey tint.
• Raspberries, blueberries, currants, cherries - berries that give tea a special taste and create a summer mood. All of them have beneficial properties and contain vitamins.

Tea with spices

What else should I add to tea? Some people love spices, so they prepare tea with cloves, cardamom, ginger, and black pepper. This is how they drink tea in the East, in India. But spices have a very strong aroma and taste, killing the natural, natural taste of tea.

I remember an old, old joke.

The conductor walks along the carriage:

- Who needs tea? Hot tea!

- Is it with sugar?

- Maybe you also want it with tea leaves?

It is clear that tea without brewing is not really tea, but you can think about sugar.

Sugar

32% of people (or so) add sugar to tea. Sometimes it seems that sugar and tea are just “twin brothers”, but in fact this is far from the case.

Tea with sugar is drunk only in Europe and some countries in the Middle East.

Well, and, of course, the question of quantity is very important - if there is just a little sugar, then the taste of the tea infusion can become more expressive, but too much sugar can drown out both the taste and aroma and even destroy vitamin B1, which is contained in tea . Therefore, there should be little sugar in tea.

I would like to make one more remark. Of course, you don’t put sweets in tea, but drinking tea with sweets is depriving yourself of the pleasure of a good, aromatic, delicate drink. It is much better, more correct and tastier to wash down the confectionery with unsweetened tea.

What does science say about tea with sugar? It must be said that the attitude of scientists towards the popular combination is ambiguous. The fact is that, according to statistics, cancer is much less common among those peoples who drink tea without sugar, although this observation still applies more to black tea. But a small amount of sugar only enhances the beneficial properties of green tea: if green tea is sweetened, catechins (organic substances from the group of flavonoids, strong antioxidants) are better absorbed.

Lemon

Almost a quarter of all tea drinkers (about 22%) drink tea with lemon. They say that drinking tea with lemon was invented relatively recently, at the end of the 19th century, and the idea appeared not just anywhere, but in Russia. It must be said that history has not preserved the name of the person who decided to put a slice of lemon in a cup of tea, but I think this person could have received just a huge amount of gratitude.

1. First of all, it's delicious! And even if the tea is not of the highest quality, lemon saves the situation - that’s a fact.
2. Secondly, in combination with lemon, tea better quenches thirst and restores strength. The Russian idea of ​​tea with lemon has taken root in many countries - today tea with lemon is drunk in Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and India.

Tea with lemon is tasty, healthy, but... But lemon should not get into a very hot drink, because high temperature will completely destroy vitamin C and other vitamins that are in lemon. It is clear that both the smell and the pleasant sourness will remain, but you can’t expect any special benefits. Therefore, it is better to put lemon in tea when the drink has cooled slightly.

Milk

It's hard to believe that someone hasn't heard of milk tea. About 16% of tea drinkers drink it. And everyone else immediately remembers England with its damp weather and milk tea. The skill of preparing (properly preparing!) tea with milk has been passed down in England from generation to generation.

It is believed that you should first pour milk into a cup (about a quarter of a cup), and only then add tea. Sugar is not added to tea with milk.

Interestingly, in England only Indian tea is diluted with milk. Regarding the fact that milk does not change the taste of tea for the better, you can notice that sugar drowns out both the taste and aroma of the drink much more strongly.

Opinions are divided regarding the benefits of milk tea. The benefit of this drink is that it is easily absorbed by the body (tea helps milk to be absorbed). Tea with milk is a wonderful diuretic that removes excess water from the body and cleanses the kidneys. Green tea with milk cleanses the body of toxins and speeds up metabolism. It has long been known that tea with milk has a positive effect on lactation in nursing mothers.

But some researchers believe that milk is not beneficial for the antioxidant properties of tea and that tea with milk is not as beneficial as tea without milk, especially when it comes to the human cardiovascular system. However, research continues.

Other herbs and berries are added to tea: currants (berries or leaves), cranberries, blackberries, dried cherries (and leaves too), blueberries …

But here it is important to remember that tea with additives already loses both its own aroma and its own taste, which was inherent only to this type of tea, but acquires the taste and aroma of additives. However, why not use the experience of generations? Or why not experiment? For example, tea with pineapple is already known, but have you tried tea with any other exotic ingredients?

Spices

There are also different opinions about tea with spices. Cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, dry ginger, fennel, black pepper; nutmeg or saffron, allspice or anise - You can put anything in tea. But all spices have a rather intense aroma and can simply “kill” the aroma of tea. In addition, you should not overuse tea with added spices: this is exactly the case when the benefits and harms differ only in quantity.

Tea, tea, hot tea! With sugar, with milk, with herbs! Choose to your taste and enjoy tea!

Don't forget to like! 🙂

Do you like drinking tea? If yes, then this article is for you. Why I’ll clarify – it’s just that not everyone likes to drink tea, and even fewer people take this issue seriously enough to read about it on the Internet.

In fact, the tea drinking process can and sometimes even needs to be analyzed. Now I’m not talking about the quality or brewing process, I’ve already talked about that, but about what we prefer to drink tea with. Tea itself is an amazing product, the wonderful properties of which we will definitely talk about in future articles, but what we drink it with... If we do not understand some very important properties of products, even very valuable initially, you can provide yourself with a healing drink instead of - quite dangerous carcinogens.

What do they like to drink with? tea? The classic is when with sweets of all varieties (sweets, marshmallows, gingerbread, cakes), some with all kinds of sandwiches, and some with smoked braided cheese or ham, with crackers, and some just like that - at a glance. Surely, there are some other extraordinary options, but my imagination is not enough for this.

The most common option is with sugar. Without hesitation. 3-5 spoons per standard 200-300 ml mug. Well, this is normal at a young age, when a person is very active and needs carbohydrates to produce energy, build cells, and improve brain activity. It is better for older people to refrain from taking sugar in its pure form (read: adding it to tea), it is already found in many products; you just need to carefully read the labels for the same sausage. In general, scientists have mixed feelings about mixing sugar with tea. It has been noticed that in countries where it is not customary to add sugar to tea, there are fewer cancer diseases. But sugar does not affect the valuable properties of green tea, and even enhances the absorption of catechins contained in the drink.

If you really can't drink tea without changing the taste, when adding sweets, try to limit yourself to cane (brown) sugar, or even preferably honey.

Although there is a subtle point here too. When exposed to high temperatures (over 40° C), honey turns into a carcinogen. It destroys an enzyme such as diastase, and fructose (also contained in honey) is oxidized, and the oxidation product can cause malignant neoplasms in the stomach, intestines and other organs of the digestive system. So add honey to tea at a comfortable temperature that you can already drink.

The same applies to lemon. This is a classic example of the traditional Russian perception of the benefits of tea. Supposedly without lemon it is useless. In fact, you need to be more careful with acid - when interacting with tannin, substances can arise that provoke the formation of kidney stones. And if you throw a slice of lemon into very hot tea, the coveted vitamin C, as well as other valuable components, are completely destroyed.

There are different opinions about milk tea. Some scientists believe that milk negatively affects the antioxidant potential of tea, negating the unique healing effect of catechin. Namely, this most important component of tea neutralizes the effect of free radicals, inhibits the development of diabetes and
cardiovascular failure.

However, other studies indicate that when milk is added to tea, B vitamins, vitamins C and PP, as well as microelements - compounds of potassium, copper, iodine and others are better absorbed. At the same time, it was noticed that the tone increases and the general condition of a person improves.

How can this discrepancy be explained? Perhaps, banal features of immunity... So, in this case, I think it remains to focus on your feelings.

And yet there is nothing better - namely, tastier and healthier - just tea. Without any extraneous components, which may add pleasantness and solemnity to the tea drinking process, but completely change the real live taste of the drink, and sometimes even gradually harm the body.