Total tea

Time was when tea was, well ... tea. Now its chamomile, peppermint, ginseng and who knows what. The world has gone barmy for funny teas, so what's it all about?

Some of us need a coffee or two in the mor-ning to get going. Some of us need a whole bucket of the stuff, and then regular fixes through the day to keep on top of things. Now more and more people are discovering that herbal and fruit teas offer a range of benefits beyond a caffeinated kick in the butt. You don't have to give up coffee, but teas can fight cancer, heart disease, all sorts of infections, and just give you a thorough massage from the inside out.

Recent studies have added to our aware-ness of the healing properties found in a vari-ety of different plants, fruits and roots used in what are now becoming everyday teas.

If you want to kick caffeine to the curb, or if you're just looking for an energy boost duri-ng your day, the root ginseng made into tea is a great alternative with quite a few healthy attributes. It's considered the queen of tonics, and is an invigorating, refreshing, or restorative agent, providing stimulation to the entire body, much like coffee, only without the shaking and the jittery feelings.

Ginseng tea has a very beneficial effect on the heart and circulation, and it can be used to help normalize blood pressure, reduce chole- sterol levels and prevent atherosclerosis, which is like a build-up of plaque along the walls of your arteries. Because ginseng nourishes the blood, it's also used to treat anemia.

Fruit teas have become fairly popular, espe- cially in the summer months as cold, refresh-ing drinks. As well as being quite delicious, fruit teas also contain an abundance of heal-ing agents.

Raspberry tea has a few known, or perhaps unknown medicinal qualities. It has been noted that raspberry tea leaves can help control dia-rrhea, be used as a blood purifier and tonic, and can help women who experience pre-men-strual tension — the degree of “help” obviously varies amongst women depending on the degree of agony she experiences every month.

Cranberry tea is a fantastic remedy for bladder infections. Most doctors will, in fact, recommend cranberry pills instead of pharma-ceuticals in order to quickly and efficiently cure bladder infections. Drinking cranberry tea daily can be a great preventative method if you're prone to this type of infection.
Blueberry leaves are used to help inflamed kidneys and increase the flow of urine. Drinking a cup or two of blueberry tea a day could make a considerable difference in the proper functioning of your kidneys. Be careful though, if you're on that last local from Kawaramachi to Umeda you may end up in a bit of a bind.

Wild strawberry tea is not so easy to find — especially in Japan — but is believed to help with a multitude of things from stomach trou-ble like indigestion, and lactose intolerance, to eczema.
Chamomile tea, although not a fruit tea, is a wonderful herbal remedy for soothing stoma-chs. It acts as a muscle relaxant if taken regu-larly and lessons the tension in the gastro-intestinal tract. It's a great tea to have after a meal and is safe for children as young as two years old.

Along these same lines, peppermint tea can be an even stronger muscle relaxant than chamomile — and peppermint is also an anti-emetic, which means that if you have nausea for any reason, it tends to calm your stomach.

As we are in the land of green tea we cannot get by without mentioning the healing properties of these leaves. Green tea has in it antioxidants and anti-cancer properties with a third of the caffeine coffee has. It can also protect against and even reverse sun damage when compounded into skin lotions.

Teas are all the rage these days. You can find most teas at your local international food stores. Give some of them a try and see if they help you kick the caffeine or just use them for a refreshing drink.

Text: Jeniffer • Photos: KS