Is Tea Good for Your Heart?

Tea Basics

All teas come from the same plant, an evergreen bush called Camellia sinensis. The amount of processing of the leaves of this bush determines the color of the tea. Black tea gets its color and full flavor from a fermentation process. Milder green tea is processed less, and white tea contains young, immature leaves picked in the spring that are barely processed.

Loose tea leaves are picked by hand and tend to be fresher. The chemicals and essential oils in these tea leaves actually flavor the tea. When these leaves are broken up into tiny pieces by a machine, as they are in bagged tea, those oils can evaporate, making bagged tea less flavorful and sometimes lower in flavonoids.

A study in 2003 found that a few brands of bagged green tea (specifically Celestial Seasonings and Lipton) fared well in the amount of flavonoids, but loose tea leaves still contain more flavonoids.

However, if you don't have access to loose tea or prefer to use tea bags, make sure that tea is listed first in the ingredients, rather than "fanning" (tiny pieces of broken leaves). Herbal teas, while flavorful and calming, actually are not teas because they do not come from the Camellia sinensis bush.