Your Cup of Tea 12: Earl Grey

These weeks we introduce you to about 25 different natural health teas (without added flavours and other artificial additives). Here the third part of the introduction. All teas at Yum Eat Cafe are served in-fusion.

If you’re a tea drinker, you may have heard of or tried Earl Grey tea, a blend of different Chinese teas with some added citrus flavour. Named for a 19th-century English prime minister, Earl Charles Grey, it’s a flavourful, aromatic blend that could also provide significant health benefits because of its content of natural, biologically active compounds.

LIke all traditional teas, Earl Grey tea leaves come from the tea plant — Camellia sinensis — and contain compounds that belong to a class of natural chemicals called flavonoids and flavonols. The leaves are dried and rolled to produce black teas such as Earl Grey, a process that promotes formation of additional potentially healthy compounds called theaflavins and thearubigins. Many of these tea components are potent antioxidants that may help protect you from chronic problems such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to research summarized by experts at the Linus Pauling Institute.