Make time for tea

There are three types of tea: green tea, which is popular in China and Japan; black tea, with its unique richly fermented taste and Oolong tea, which is halfway between green and black. In the UK we drink mostly black tea from the hill plantations of Africa, India and Sri Lanka.

Tea was discovered in China over 5000 years ago, but it was not until about 2700 BC that it became associated with health-giving properties. Legend has it that a certain Emperor Shen-Nung, who was at the time suffering from some aches and pains, drank a cup of boiled water into which some tea leaves had accidentally fallen and lo and behold - his pains disappeared.

Today, modern science is helping to unlock some of the secrets of this natural beverage, showing it can be more than just a welcome drink to wake up to or a delicious way to unwind.

• Like some fruit and vegetables, tea contains naturally occurring antioxidants called flavonoids which form an important part of a healthy diet.
• Tea with milk contains a number of vitamins and minerals, in particular it has reasonable quantities of fluoride and manganese.
• Tea has no calories and even when you add semi-skimmed milk it still only contains 14 calories and 0.4g fat per cup (so long as you keep off the sugar).
• Tea helps us to meet the recommended intake of 6-8 cups of fluid per day, especially when taken as a refreshing thirst-quencher after exercise. Over half our body weight is water and it is important to replenish any fluid loss as soon as possible.

This article was first published on Waitrose.com in March 1999.