When Bitter Grocery Store Teas Bring You Down
- Ara Weston
- Aug 27, 2021
- 4 min read
Tea is truly one of my favorite things. It gives me a sense of euphoria and calmness, making everything seem infinitely more zen. It makes my anxieties lessen their hold on my brain, and lets my body rest.
Tea is incredibly versatile, full of antioxidants and health benefits. If you're not a medical marijuana person and are looking for another healing substance, tea is your friend. Tea contains many antioxidants and health benefits for all kinds of ailments. (You can even put a bud of medicinal cannabis in your tea if you're feeling saucy.)
As a self-proclaimed tea person, the tea you drink is very important. Grocery store tea is essentially a slush pile of rejects. While there're a few brands that make an exception, much of what you find in a supermarket is battered, broken, and sad inside. What's more, you may find many flavors, but not many varieties.
The four major types of teas are the most common by default. Black, Oolong, Green, and White. These are the ones that populate the shelves and most people's cupboards. They're an industry standard and specialty artisan teas make them very well. In fact, there're so many types and grades of each.
But there're teas for every color of the rainbow, and they aren't as common as their sepia-toned counterparts. Don't get me wrong, I love a chai latte and a glass of iced tea, but the electric tones of a cup of blue tea give me more of a pep in my step.
Add some excitement to your tea-drinking experience. Life is more than supermarket shelves. Below is a rainbow of tea that you may not have heard of, but all are wellness power-houses and zen machines:
Red Tea
Rooibos is red tea made from a plant local to South Africa. Its leaves impart their red hue when steeped. It's produced only in South Africa, which exports about seven tons of the stuff a year.
As a caffeine-free herbal tisane, that means it technically isn't tea, since tea comes from one plant species. But its earthy notes with sweet vanilla flavors pair great with chocolate and citrus, and it still has a slew of benefits.
To prepare:
Steep at 212 degrees for 4-5 minutes.
Orange Tea
Unfortunately, I lied. There isn't tea for every color of the rainbow. Orange tea doesn't exist unless you count steeping orange peels in water. But once it exists, the rainbow will be complete.
Yellow Tea
Yellow tea is a very rare, prized kind of tea. It's produced only in the high mountains of Hunan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan in China. The freshly picked tea leaves are not allowed to oxidize; instead, they are allowed to ferment slightly, which makes for a clean, floral taste.
Sometimes, it's possible to see yellow tea sold in the US, but it can be simply poor-quality green tea. Therefore, it's best to deal directly with vendors from the farms in China.
It's also important to note that Korea makes a yellow tea, but it is unrelated and not the same as Chinese yellow tea.
To prepare:
Steep at 180 degrees for 1-3 minutes.
Green Tea
Even though green tea is one of the major four mentioned above, it's worth noting the immense varieties and highlighting their health benefits. With over 300 varieties, they'll have different flavors based on where they grow: rose bush? Floral notes. Pine trees? Woodsy.
Green tea originated in China, with Yunnan home to 260 varieties. It's chock-full of antioxidants and polyphenols, which help with metabolism, inflammation, and blood sugar levels. This makes green tea an anti-cancer, weight-loss drink.
To prepare:
Green teas are notoriously finicky. I've encountered some that steep for ten seconds, and some for three minutes. Your best bet is to follow instructions for the exact variety you have.
Blue Tea
Blue tea is from Southeast Asia and is definitely one of the prettiest teas. Made from the butterfly pea flower plant, it's technically an herbal tisane, but that doesn't stop it from outdoing nearly every other tea in benefits. Blue tea extract has been shown to reduce fevers, boost immune responses, along with helping diabetes and brain health.
With a taste similar to green tea. this blue-tea-ful (sorry, I couldn't resist) variety is a bright addition to anyone's tea shelf.
To prepare:
Blue tea steeps like other herbal teas, which all vary, but are generally steeped at 190 degrees for around 5-7 minutes.
Purple Tea
Purple tea is my personal favorite. It's a rare variety found in Kenya and gains its moniker from anthocyanins, which is what makes blueberries ooze purple coloring. It's packed with antioxidants, and boasts similar healing properties to blue and green tea.
It tastes like a mix of green and black tea: green tea's floral notes and black tea's depth. It is not overly woodsy or bitter.
To prepare:
Since purple tea is a breed of the true tea plant, it steeps similar to black teas. Steep at 212 degrees for 4 minutes.
With a tea for (nearly) every color of the rainbow, it doesn't have to be a lackluster beverage relegated to the supermarket shelves. Instead, it belongs in the pantheon of wellness gurus and medicinal remedies.
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