Green tea has several health benefits and is one of the most well-known herbal beverages consumed in most Asian countries including India. Initially, it is grown mainly in China and Japan, but few Chinese leaf extract brought to Darjeeling and so in India Darjeeling is the central cultivating hub for green tea. However, over last few years’ green teas gains massive popularity in all across the globe.
In this regard, several studies and medical researchers have found that the active constituents in green tea are potent antioxidants which are popularly known as catechin and flavonols. Thus a cup of green tea has, the more antioxidant power of vitamin C and E compared to any other beverage. Well, in this regard green tea comes with various health benefits like it helps to reduce cholesterol, boost metabolism, lose weight, and even helps in preventing certain kind of cancers.
How much ECGC in a cup of green tea? You must be well aware of the fact that green tea comes with catechin called ECGC and in several studies, researchers have used therapeutic dosages of 300 to 1000mg per day. So here the very common question that lingers in everyone’s mind is that how many cups of green tea one must drink in a day. Well, in this regard, the USDA in their 2007 report analyzed the flavonoid content of nearly 400 food items and they also reported EGCG content. I dug through the report and came up with the following figures of EGCG content in different teas per cup.
- Brewed green tea: 180mg
- Brewed green tea, decaffeinated: 60mg
- Brewed green tea, flavored: 45mg
- Ready-to-drink green tea: 10mg
- Brewed Oolong tea: 80mg
- Brewed black tea: 20mg
Well, all the above figures are mean values from the report and thus there has been a considerable variation for each of those groups. For example brewed green tea values from 5mgto 460mg per cup.
Brewing conditions Well, here another thing you need to keep in mind is that how you brew the tea also makes a difference in the ECGC content and the antioxidant quality of the tea. So in this regard, we will mainly focus on water temperature and the brewing time.
Brewing Temperature As per the experts the effect brewing water temperature has to ECGC and polyphenol content of the tea. So the hotter the water is, the more antioxidant your tea will have and here one thing you need to know is that the EGCG extraction is particularly sensitive to water temperature.
So for getting these figures, experts have brewed tea at 100 degrees Celsius for 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 5 minutes time. They used the tea in a typical tea bag concentrations, i.e. 1g of tea leaves per 100ml of water. So there you have it, all the information regarding how to get the best out of your green tea. For more such updates you are welcome to our website or just get in touch with the customer support team if you need any sorts of support.
