1. Home
  2. Tea Connoisseur's Forum
  3. multiple infusions and antioxidants

multiple infusions and antioxidants

Hi--I am an a.m. coffee drinker, but I enjoy a large mug of tea every afternoon. I enjoy tea because of the flavor and also because of the many health benefits. My favorite teas are Formosan oolongs, followed by Chinese Pu-Erhs and white teas.

Since I only drink one mug of tea per day, I am wondering about any depletion of antioxidants caused by multiple infusions. Is there any evidence that the antioxidants in tea are depleted by the end of the first infusion? I know that my oolongs and Pu-Ehrs are able to tolerate multiple infusions without loss of flavor, but I wonder whether the health benefits also fare well through multiple infusions.

Thanks for any information--

Reply to
in her garden
Loading thread data ...

Dear "in her garden"

Prevailing wisdom suggests that tea catechins, unlike caffeine, do not dissolve that quickly and can tolerate multiple infusions. Having said that, I haven't really seen any study directly supporting this.

On the other hand, in Asia we tend to multiple infuse. Given that many population studies have found health benefits associated with tea drinking, I would think little is lost.

In fact, I personally prefer multiple infusion as not only it reduces cost, it takes out most of the caffeine and bad stuff in the first infusion.

For aged pu-er tea, first infusion is generally not that great as it contains too much tea dust, that accumulates on pu-er tea after all those years.

Just remember keep your water temperature below the boiling point.

Hope it helps.

Julian

formatting link

Reply to
tntai

Uh, not most of the caffeine. Nigel's off duty today, so it's up to me to swat this one. This was dealt with recently on RFDT:

formatting link

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Dear IHG,

a large number of studies have been made in that direction. I remember a german study from not too long ago [Uni Leipzig ?!], that was focused on the polyphenols of readily available middle-of the-road teas - black and green. Bottom line [AFAIR] - BIG surprise here.: the longer and hotter you steep, the more comes out. If I remember correctly the average percentage was around 70% of the total PPs having been extracted from both green and black teas [bags] after just

3 minutes at slightly below boiling temps. 10 minute steeps at the same temp. resulted in around 85%. If you need exact numbers, I could try to dig them out from somewhere.

Best, Karsten [2006 SF Muscatel DJ]

Reply to
psyflake

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.