Detox: Japanese Green Tea

Green tea has been one of my favourite detox beverages for many years. Originating from Japan, the health benefits of drinking even a cup or two of this stuff everyday has been linked to reducing the risk of death. I'm sure any fitness/health freaks reading this will already know the benefits of green tea but here are some others:

• Protects against heart disease
• Protects against diabetes
• Lowers blood pressure
• Protects against cancer
• Improve immunity
• Fight allergies
• Prevent Alzheimers

I don't have a particular reason why I drink a lot of this stuff but it has really helped with stress and weight loss. I used to be really addicted to green tea through the night but then I found it kept me awake and brought me into an insomniac/owly state so I had to stop for a while. I'm one of those people who enjoy their tea bitter and dark so I tend to steep mine for a long time to appreciate the real tea-like taste (I know, I'm weird like that). I haven't really tried many types of green tea but here are 3 of my favourites.

Hojicha

Hojicha is also known as roasted green tea, it is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal which I assume this is where it gets its roasted taste from. The leaves are of a brown-ish colour and steeps into a reddish brown colour. This is my favourite type of green tea because I really enjoy the roasted taste, it's nice and pungent but not too bitter. I've only tried the bagged type of this tea which I really enjoy, it's already strong enough so I don't see myself buying the loose leaves version anytime soon.

Sencha 

Sencha is known as the most popular green tea in Japan. It steeps to a greenish-golden colour and I usually buy loose leaves to brew my sencha with. I'm not against bagged tea (I actually prefer it), but with sencha, I feel like I get more flavour from loose leaves where I can control how much to put into a mug according to how strong I want the taste to be, also, with loose leaves you can usually get two mugs out of it before you lose the flavour. This used to be my favourite until I tried hojicha but still a nice type to have when I prefer something not too strong. 

Genmaicha 

Also known as brown rice tea and is actually a combination of green tea with roasted brown rice. It does have real rice in it that sometimes pop so you see tiny bits of popcorn amongst the leaves. This type steeps into a yellow-green-ish colour and is the lightest hue out of all three of these types. It has a lovely unique rice taste and smell to it, perfect again for some days where I prefer something not as strong as hojicha but not as weak as sencha. Like sencha, I prefer this served as loose leaves because it's a weak tasting tea, I like to control the taste with the quantity of leaves I put in. 

To sum up, the greatest benefit I've personally found from drinking green tea is weight control and I always love a big mug of green tea especially after eating a greasy meal or alongside a sushi fest (all that sodium from soya sauce...). I'd advise people to try green tea if they have never tried it before and try to have a cup of it a day just for health benefits in general, it's surprising what one cup of green tea can provide you with, but be careful when drinking it at night before bed because it does contain caffeine!