Green Tea, a favorite of Japanese and Chinese, has been drunk in the East since medieval times and had been known since then for its flavor as well as health benefits. These days tea lovers around the world drink it considering it far healthier than drinking black tea or coffee.
 

The difference in green tea lies in the processing. Green tea is the least processed; it is withered and barely fermented. White tea is fast-dried while black tea is fully fermented.

 Gunpowder green tea or zhucha green tea is one of the green teas from China. Some of the other varieties are Mao Feng and Mo Li Hua Cha green tea. If you want liquid extract instead of leaves or powder, you could get liquid green tea extracts called chi tea.

Green tea is available as tea bags, loose leaf liquid extract or green tea powder. Other than using them for making tea, green tea powder and extract can also be used in making other delicacies like cake, puddings etc.

An Indian variety of the green tea is green tea chai, so called probably because chai is the name for tea in Indian languages.

Green Tea Chai is actually a combination of green tea and chai. Green tea is usually drunk without adding milk, adding only honey at times to deal with the bitterness. In contrast, chai is almost always drunk with milk, adding sugar for taste and better flavor.

You also add spices like ginger, cinnamon and cardamom to chai. Can you guess the recipe for green tea chai from this? Yes, just follow the process of making chai, but add green tea leaves instead of black tea.

That is add tea leaves, spices such as cloves, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon, to boiled water, add milk to taste and your green tea chai is ready. Sometimes pepper and tulsi, a type of basil, are also added.

The spices added to Chai are considered to be very healthy. Ginger and Cardamom is good for the digestive system. Cloves are anti-inflammatory and it has analgesic properties. All of these spices contain antioxidants which improve cardiovascular health. Pepper and tulsi are good if you are suffering from common cold or sinusitis.

Green tea chai latte recipe involves using steamed milk from an espresso machine. You could also buy green tea chai latte mixes.

Green Tea itself is said to have many health benefits. The antioxidant level in tea is higher in the case of green tea. The polyphenols and antioxidants provide anti coagulatory effect contributing towards a healthy heart.

Scientific studies involving green tea extract have shown green tea extract to reduce the chances of arthritis, and help cure Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s in mice. Similar studies have not been done on humans though. A short term study done with humans show that the green tea extract reduces blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors.

Green tea extract is also seen to reduce dental cavities, kidney stones and improve oxidation of body fat, cognition and bone density. The catechins in green tea were seen to improve eye and retinal health in rats. There’s no comparative study in humans.

Studies have also shown that consuming green tea increases life expectancy in humans by a considerable degree. Green tea is also seen to work as antidepressant. Green tea is linked to prevalence of lower degree of depression in Japanese and other green tea drinkers.

Green tea in extreme concentration can cause acidity though. It shouldn’t be consumed by pregnant ladies.

The caffeine content which is considered to be the unhealthy component in tea could be reduced by removing the water after first infusion. Caffeine is the first to dissolve and throwing away the first infusion can reduce the caffeine content considerably.