may 2006 - working copyzbk.qxp - Filipino Star

May 2006
The North American Filipino Star
Page 15
Green Tea Anyone?
It must have been during my
first flight onboard Japan Air Lines on
the way to the Philippines years ago
when I began to like green tea. The
flight attendants would offer either
“English tea” or “green tea” to the
passengers, an amusing distinction I
thought at the time. I would choose
green tea on the principle that “when in
Rome, do as the Romans do” even
though I was only riding an airplane
run by a Japanese company, not in
Japan itself. Since then, we would
prepare ourselves some green tea at odd
moments of the day, and enjoy it as
much as we would enjoy black tea.
Recently, we welcomed a Japanese
student in our home. To our delight, we
have been learning so much about
Japanese culture from Yukiko, her
name. One of the things we are
discovering is that there is much more
to green tea than we ever thought. It
turns out that Yukiko comes from a
region of Japan, the Shizuoka
prefecture, which produces the best
green tea of the country. It is a
mountainous region with just the right
combination of rainfall and temperature
that results in good quality leaves from
the evergreen Camellia sinensis, the
source of all tea. Only the new leaves
that shoot out in spring are suitable for
tea production, and these are harvested
in May.
Our curiosity in tea varieties having
been stimulated, we ventured into a
specialty tea shop in the NDG area in
Monkland. There we learned of
“gyokuro” tea which at $50 per 20
grams is supposed to be the highest
quality Japanese green tea there is. The
storekeeper, perhaps noticing my very
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surprised look, tried to lessen the price
shock by pointing out that it comes to
about a dollar a cup, certainly not so
bad considering the price we pay for a
good cup of coffee. Nevertheless, we
didn’t have the heart to part with so
much money for so little tea. Yukiko,
however, had asked her parents to send
some fine green tea from their region. I
heard the “whoosh” when she opened
that can – the tea was vacuum-packed!
We passed it around and noticed right
away that the tea leaves were a dark
green, certainly different from the
brownish-pale green of the locally
available version. The reason for this,
Yukiko explained, is that the cheaper
tea has stems mixed in with the leaves.
In addition, green tea must be prepared
not in any haphazard way but
according to precise conditions: The
water must be ideally at 75°C and
steeping must be from 2 to 4 min only.
The result was an extremely smooth
tea, definitely superior in aroma and
flavour to that which I have become
accustomed to.
Some might be wondering how
different green tea is from the more
common black tea (or “English tea”
according to the flight attendants of
JAL). First the similarity: Both black
and green tea, called “true” tea come
from the Camellia sinensis plant. The
difference: Black tea is produced by
allowing the tea leaves to oxidize, a
process similar to the natural browning
of cut apples. Thus, black tea has a
different chemical profile than green
tea. For example, black tea, because of
this oxidation step, contains more
caffeine than green tea. Black tea has a
longer shelf life, staying flavorful for
years. On the other hand, green tea will
not last for more than a year, in some
cases for only a few months. And of
course, green tea tastes totally different
from black tea.
It is generally said that green tea
has beneficial health effects. This belief
originated from putting two and two
together, that is, that tea is a major
beverage in the orient, perhaps even on
par with water, and that the incidence
of chronic disease in the orient is
relatively low compared to that in
western countries. Ergo, tea drinking
might be responsible, at least in part, in
protecting Asian people against heart
disease, cancer and diabetes, the major
chronic diseases. As with any sort of
association, the supposed link is not
necessarily true, hence the need to
systematically test the claimed
beneficial effects of tea, whether green
or black. In this regard, many people
believe that green tea is more potent
than black tea, perhaps because the
green variety is less modified with
respect to the fresh leaves.
Many have sought to prove and
measure the claimed beneficial effects.
A computerized survey of the scientific
literature yielded about 600 articles
published between 2004 and May 2006
on green tea alone. The main idea has
been and still is that tea contains an
abundance of antioxidants that protect
against the destructive effects of
oxygen. (I wrote an article on
antioxidants for this paper in June
1999.) Thus, a number of articles
report that green tea appear to be
associated with a lower risk of breast
cancer, lung cancer and prostrate
cancer. Some even report that green tea
results in a favourable blood lipid
profile, and may even be useful in the
fight against obesity. Some of the more
clear-cut studies were done on
experimental animals. The results of
trials done on human beings are more
controversial and difficult to interpret.
This is mainly because the human diet
is extremely variable and cannot be
easily defined and controlled like one
could do with laboratory diets given to
experimental animals. I must therefore
mention that the National Cancer
Institute is very cautious when it comes
to the effects of green tea on cancer in
humans. It has not closed the door on
the possibility that green tea might have
beneficial effects, but it does not
endorse green tea as useful in the fight
against cancer. In fact, the National
Cancer Institute is sponsoring scientific
studies to evaluate the potential
usefulness of green tea to fight skin
cancer. We are still waiting for the
official word.
My recommendation? If you enjoy
green or black tea, by all means
continue to do so. Who knows, on top
of its desirable aroma and taste, science
might yet still prove the health benefits
of this ancient beverage.