JUST ORDINARY GREEN TEA - YEAH, RIGHT!! (Twinings Green Tea Orange & Lotus Flower)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Twinings Green Tea Orange & Lotus Flower
Date:	27/10/04 (607 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Could help your memory, This tastes nice

Disadvantages: You may hate it

I like tea. Let’s face it, tea is better for you than coffee for lots of reasons. In fact, seeing as you are here I will bore you with the reasons why in the shortest of whiles. First of all, caffeine isn’t great. Like most things, a little caffeine isn’t going to hurt so, say 3 cups of caffeine laden tea or coffee a day shouldn’t be detrimental. However, for insomniacs like myself, it pays to limit the caffeine intake as the former is a stimulant and will cause your heart to race that little bit faster when taken and maybe keep you up at night. So it makes sense to find a drink that won’t stimulate the brain.

I’ve always struggled with green tea. I know it’s good for me, I know it’s healthy and it can even contribute to helping out people in the Third World through the Fair Trade Scheme. The thing is, if it tastes yuk it makes it difficult to drink. <drum roll> Look no further than Twinings Lotus Green Tea with orange flavour. At last a tea that tastes nice and I now drink all of the time together with my good lady.

To identify this wee beastie, seek out a green box with a small circular image of 3 leaves and an orange coloured flower. The box has Twinings adorned across the top with a declaration that the brand is by appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, no less! There is also the statement encircling the leaf/flower image that the tea is a natural source of antioxidants. For those unfamiliar with the term, antioxidants are meant to counter the effect of free radicals, which are produced by most of the things we eat and drink. These free radicals cause us to age and decay so anything that can counter this is a good thing.

Tea is a highly competitive commodity with competition fierce across the brands. With so many different types available on the supermarket shelves it can be a bewildering experience as to which one to pick. I mean, there’s PG Tips, Typhoo and so many others. Twinings should have a wee section to themselves such is the large range available and interestingly, this particular green tea originates from the home of tea i.e. China whereas most teas seem to come from India, Sri Lanka or Asia in general. Well, I thought it was interesting <rolls eyes>

The taste is all-important and when water is poured on the bag contained in your cup (at just less than boiling point is best i.e. moderately hot), the flavour is dispersed throughout the drink. Needless to say (unless you’ve never tried this before), no milk is needed – just hot water and the tea bag. The taste is a lovely combination of lotus flower heads and orange and it’s that citrus zest that gives the drink its flavour. The taste of orange is subtle enough to not be overpowering and the effect is a refreshing brew that perks you up without resorting to caffeine. The colour in your cup should be an opaque auburn colour. If it isn’t you’ve probably stuck your usual coffee granules in by mistake!

OK, so what’s so healthy about green tea? Well, it’s funny you should ask that. Recent research has suggested that both black and green tea may help with your memory. Consuming this brew appears to inhibit certain enzymes, which may lead to a new treatment for Alzheimer’s. Researchers at Newcastle University have found that regular consumption of this kind of tea inhibits the activity of the enzyme – acetylcholinesterase (AchE) – which is not easy to say after a few beers. This breaks down the chemical messenger acetylcholine consequently reducing the effects of Alzheimer’s. Moreover, green tea has been found to hinder the activity of the enzyme – butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) – discovered in protein deposits found in the brains of Alzheimer patients. Even more so, green tea also obstructs the activity of beta-secretase, which plays a role in the production of the protein deposits mentioned above. Now you may be worrying that I have Alzheimer’s but…erm…nope I’m quite alright although my memory is not good. Apparently, Tony Benn is a tea addict swigging up to 18 pints a day and has a noteworthy memory at the age of 79.

Seeing as I am on a roll now – other benefits include:

According to a study at the University of California, green tea has to be shown to slow the growth of prostrate cancer. Tea includes chemicals that block the formation of non-melanoma skin tumours. Researchers in Perth, Australia have found that green tea improved the survival rates of women with ovarian cancer and green tea has be shown to lower levels of cholesterol and hypertension.

The price is a drawback, unfortunately. At £1.08 for a box of 20, this ain’t cheap and 5p per tea bag is probably at least double the going rate for more conventional tea bags. It is reasonably easy to come buy this product. Twinings is a major brand that’s been around for years since 1706 in fact so they do what they are doing. Whilst Twinings do not appear to be official members of the Fair Trade movement, they are keen to stress that they are members of the Tea Sourcing Partnership and, as such, do support employment in the Third World as well as monitoring working conditions and the like.

Well after all that, how could you at least not try it? My good lady and I can often be found on the terrace both mid-morning and late afternoon enjoying a spot of tiffin…and we quite enjoy our green tea too. Definitely recommended to you good people of Dooyoo as Twinings Green Tea with Orange Flavour is the nicest green tea I’ve ever tasted and it may change your life. What was all that about again? Damn that memory.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

see www.twinings.com for more info about Twinings and www.tonybenn.com for more info about Tony Benn.

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