Green Tea vs Black Tea
filed in Green Tea on September 26th, 2008
Which tea is better - green tea or black tea? As we all know, green tea is a very powerful weapon against several illnesses. But how about black tea? Do we also get health benefits from it? Black tea does have several health benefits but they are not nearly as wide-ranging and powerful as those of green tea.
But what makes green tea more beneficial than black tea?
The answer is “catechins”! Catechins are green tea’s main ingredient containing eight times more than black tea. Catechins are, by the way, the one responsible for green tea’s amazing health benefits. Bottom line is that the more catechins a tea has, the better it is for your general health. Unfortunately, these catechins are mostly oxidized into theaflavins and thearubigens during the manufacture of black tea. Theaflavins and thearubigens do have some of their own health benefits, but they can’t compare with the wide-ranging effects of green tea’s catechins, particularly the powerful EGCG.
While a cup of black tea contains about 5- 10 mg of the powerful catechin EGCG, a cup of green tea contains more than eight times than amount, or 40-90 mg. Although green and black teas came from the same plant - Camellia Sinensis, what makes them different from each other in terms of taste and health benefits is the processing method. When making green tea, processors lightly steam or gently heat the leaves to stop the oxidation process. This processing is so minimal that green tea can be consumed the same leaves are picked. On the other hand, tea leaves designed to become black tea are allowed to oxidize and undergo considerably more processing, including a fermentation process that produces the dark-brown and even reddish color of black tea.
But the process used to make a black tea destroys compounds called polyphenols. It is the polyphenols that are responsible for the long list of health benefits of green tea.
Despite its stronger color and flavor, black tea cannot come close to green tea as far as health benefits are concerned. Because green tea’s processing is as little as possible, green tea retains its original polyphenols.
