A Drink Fit to Wear a Crown.
Why it's time for a New Health Kick!
Green tea - we all know it's healthy, but most of us don’t know why. Well, wonder no more! In our ongoing quest to explain why we’ve chosen the ingredients we have, today is green tea’s turn in the spotlight.
Legend has it that, thousands of years before Christ was even a twinkle in God’s eye, China’s first Emperor, Shennong, stumbled upon a pleasant surprise. Sipping his cup of water one day, he was taken aback by the refreshing taste that met his lips and, upon further inspection, he discovered that a tea leaf had been blown into the pot of his boiling water. That, as the tale goes, is how tea was born - eventually spreading across the world to become the most popular drink on the planet. Building upon its role in fuelling China’s rise as the oldest continuous civilization, a strong cup of tea also went on to power the British to victory in the Second World War; as well as being responsible for a certain Party in Boston that ignited the American Revolution.
So, there you have it. Tea - a key ingredient in one of the cradles of civilization, the defeat of Hitler, the founding of the United States and, most importantly, in Marquis!
However, not all tea is created equal and, you guessed it, we use the very best!
Firstly, while both green and black tea are products of the Camellia-sinensis plant, they are very different ingredients. Black tea, the most commonly drunk, is produced by crushing the plant’s leaves before leaving them to oxidize - much in the same way as your bananas turn brown if you leave them out for too long. However, it is during this oxidization that many of the antioxidants, micronutrients, and vitamins inherent to the plant are broken down. We think that’s a waste - so we skip this step!
Instead, by drying the leaves whole, we preserve their integrity - producing green tea. This simpler path retains the plant’s numerous health benefits, giving a drink brewed with green tea the power to detox your system by naturally flushing away toxins.
When you understand this, it comes as no surprise that this type of tea is drunk by over 80% of the population in Japan - the longest living country in the world! The micronutrients in the green leaf helps lower cholesterol and your chance of having a stroke or a heart attack, while at the same time boosting your cognitive function, immune system, and metabolism. To quote an old Japanese proverb:
“Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage.”
In a world where most modern drinks - from sugary soft-drinks to alcoholic beverages - are behind our increasingly poor health, it’s refreshing to know that we can actually help our bodies heal and thrive. We just need to start sipping the right stuff!
And the right stuff is Marquis. When you understand that most tea isn’t green, and most green tea isn’t organic, you start to see why our ingredients matter. By choosing organic green tea, we are canning the original - the same untouched leaf that fell into Shennong’s boiling pot all those years ago. If it’s good enough for China’s first Emperor, Churchill, and the Founding Fathers, it's good enough for us!
