You’ve probably heard of green tea, you’ve definitely heard of black tea, but do you know what white tea is?
While it looks pretty much the same as green tea when steeped in water, white tea is said to come from young buds, before they have had time to mature into green leaves (green tea is picked before it is mature too, preventing the oxidisation process). Its name comes from the fine white hairs on the young tea leaf buds, but it is undistinguishable from green tea after drying and processing.
I’ve recently been indulging on Organic White Tea Strawberry from Higher Living*, and it led me to wonder what the health benefits are of white tea. Now we know that it’s made using younger leaves, could it be better than green tea in terms of nutrition?
What I’ve found is that white tea has notedly high levels of vitamin C, along with antioxidants, which helps the body to slow the ageing process somewhat. It also has antibacterial properties, and is higher in certain polyphenols than green tea, making it slightly more effective at preventing conditions leading up to cancer.
It’s also worth noting that white tea has less caffeine in than green tea, making it the perfect drink in the evening. And with the light strawberry twist added to Higher Living‘s tea bags, it’s so nice on a warm summer’s evening!
In terms of living sustainably, it would be nice to see Higher Living produce loose leaf versions of this tea too – I’ll let you know if they ever create some! Have you tried white tea?
