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Blueberry Breeze Green Tea
By
Published: Jan 01, 2008
Category:
Food and Wine
Blueberry Breeze Green Tea
Blueberries rule.
When the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston measured the antioxidant capacity of foods, blueberries scored highest of 40 common fresh fruits and vegetables. [Number 2: Concord grape juice, with two-thirds of the antioxidants of blueberries.]
This is important, because antioxidants attack free radicals — molecules in the body that have been rendered unstable because of poor diet or exposure to chemicals, pollution, smoke, drugs, alcohol and pesticides. Antioxidants give those free radicals an electron that neutralizes them. And then you don’t age faster than you should or get cancer.
I’ve recently started drinking Celestial Seasonings Blueberry Breeze Green Tea.
Before you get overly excited — Green Tea and Blueberries! — let’s remember some basic facts.
You need to drink quite a lot of green tea each day to get a full dose of antioxidants. In Japan, it’s no big deal for adults to consume 50 ounces of green tea a day. In America, who drinks six or seven cups of tea every day?
For another thing, you’re not getting the value of half a cup or more of fresh blueberries in this tea. The box is no help on this point, so I wrote to Celestial Seasonings, which has a refreshing and rare policy — honesty. How much antioxidant content is there in a blueberry-infused Celestial Seasonings teabag? Answer: “The majority of the antioxidant content is derived from the green tea. Only a small antioxidant contribution is made by the blueberries, which are in the formula at a low percentage.”
If the health benefits are modest, why do I recommend this tea?
First, because the fruit flavor encourages you to drink green tea. Be honest: do you really like the taste of green tea? I can bear it — but I wouldn’t choose it. But the blueberries mask the tartness of the green tea. With no great moral effort, I find myself drinking three or four cups of this stuff a day.
Second, this tea contains much less caffeine than coffee — just 20 mg versus 80-175 mg. I’m always happy to see less of Mr. Jitters.
Finally, price. 120 of these teabags cost $16.43 at Amazon.com. And the bags come in boxes so environmentally correct — that is to say, without toxic glues — that they fall apart as soon as you open them. There’s something charming about that.
Oh, and I guess I could make the case that I feel virtuous drinking a blueberry-infused green tea. But I’d need more caffeine to do that. And Blueberry Breeze Green tea tastes just good enough that, more often than I’d predict, I choose it over coffee.
Warning: This tea may be dangerous to your lifelong habits.
To buy Celestial Seasonings Blueberry Breeze Green Tea from Amazon.com, click here.
