SOONER OR LATER WE'LL LEARN SOMETHING OUR FOREFATHERS DIDN'T KNOW:

How brewing your tea for five minutes can make you live longer (NICK MCDERMOTT, 28th May 2007, Daily Mail)

The traditionalists say that the best cuppa is made by giving tea leaves a lengthy soak in a pot.

And now scientists have been forced to agree.

Research suggests that tea left to steep for five minutes releases more health-giving properties than tea bags briefly dipped in a mug of hot water.

The old-fashioned brew has a higher concentration of antioxidants - disease-fighting molecules which help to neutralise the free radicals which damage cells and play a role in everything from ageing to cancer.

The antioxidants reach their peak after five minutes' brewing. It does not matter whether the tea is loose or in bags - so a tea bag left in a mug of hot water for five minutes would have the same beneficial effect.

One assumes that most Americans, schooled on coffee, steep their tea that long just so it tatses like something.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 28, 2007 8:12 AM