May 21, 2021 is being celebrated as International Tea Day. The Day seeks to promote and foster collective actions to implement activities in favour of the sustainable production and consumption of tea and raise awareness of its importance in fighting hunger and poverty. The Faculty joins the world in recognising the Day by sharing the below article written by Dr. Sylvia Mitchell from the Biotechnology Centre, The UWI Mona.

Do you know your Tea?

We in the Caribbean are used to TEA meaning anything warm to drink. So even coffee becomes ‘tea’! But actually, tea refers to a warm or cold drink made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis. The plant is grown as a shrub and the leaves clipped off to make the various types of teas. In Jamaica, we mostly get our tea in the form of ‘tea bags’ but it does come in different forms (see below). How did one plant get elevated to the United Nations declaring a day just for it? Well let’s start with a few facts....

• Tea is the world’s most consumed drink, after water.
• Tea has been used as a beverage for a very long-time. It is thought to have originated in NE India/SW China and there is evidence that tea was consumed in China 5,000 years ago. During a bamboo training trip to China in 2016, I observed tea was available at every meal.
• Tea is involved in the history of many countries eg the Boston Tea Party of 1773. American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing “taxation without representation,” dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbour. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists.
• Tea is highly sensitive to changes in growing conditions and is grown in a limited number of countries, many of which are vulnerable to climate change.
• The UN designated the Day to promote and foster collective actions to implement activities favouring sustainable production and consumption of tea, and raise awareness of its contribution in fighting hunger and poverty.

How many different types of tea are there?

Source: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/images/2041-six-types-of-tea

And is it good for you?

Though all types of tea come from the same plant, they are classified based on their processing and level of oxidation. Green Tea is the least oxidized and has the highest level of natural polyphenols, which help the body combat a range of ailments. The main polyphenol for which the most amount of scientific information has been gathered is epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). This polyphenol has been found to have many health uses and I would encourage you to read more about it as you sip your tea. There are variations in the amount of EGCG and other polyphenols depending on the country of origin, farming criteria, processing and level of oxidation.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285299149_Antimicrobial_potenti...

Source: https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-2061200600...

‘Reading tea leaves’: https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)61193-2/fulltext

What about caffeine?

All types of tea have lower levels of caffeine than coffee, so tea is preferred by many individuals. The amount of caffeine also varies depending on the type of tea.

Source: https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-much-caffeine-in-green-tea-765281

Let us celebrate the day by a call for action

Drink for thought:

We cannot leave this article without mentioning that the Caribbean, while it is unsuitable for planting of Camelia sinensis (although I am not sure if it has ever even been tried), is well known for its herbal teas, which have been found to be useful for many purposes - whether to ‘bust a gas’ (eg colic mint), cure a cold (anti-viral), as a preventative (anti-oxidant), or to soothe our stress, etc. But that is a topic for another article, and possibly will lead to our own ‘International Herbal Tea Day’ sometime in the future. 

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