Born Wild Tea’s Top Tips on the Health Benefits of Loose Leaf Tea
In the spirit of health and wellbeing as our focus for the new year, we caught up with Charlotte, co-founder of Cheltenham based Born Wild Tea (and sister company Fire & Flow in Cirencester) on her tips and recipes for making the perfect brew.
What with 160 million cups of tea being drunk a day in the UK alone, it’s no secret that in all areas of the world tea is a cornerstone in our culture for its restorative powers.
Charlotte takes us through what benefits we can reap from switching up our routine to include loose-leaf brews and what we should be looking for to stimulate our energy and what to wind down with.
“I’m Charlotte from Born Wild Tea - we’re a speciality tea company based in the Cotswolds! I’d have to describe ourselves as ‘all about the leaf’! We go to great lengths to source premium quality, hand-picked loose leaf tea from sustainable tea plantations all over the world. ”
Why we love loose leaf
We’re not about dusty tea…
Have you ever opened up a standard tea bag to take a look at what’s inside? No, probably not that would just be weird! But if you did, you would likely find very fine, dust-like tea leaves.
The tea used in these bags are smaller, lesser quality leaves, often referred to as dust or fannings. This means that the tea can be cheaply mass machine packed into bags, and infuses in water extremely quickly. However, this tea lacks so much of the flavour and releases many more tannins, which makes the tea taste bitter.
Because of the quality of loose leaf tea, the leaves are able to release their full aroma and essential oils into the water when infused. This ensures you are getting all of that lovely flavour and all the health benefits to boot!
Another health and environmentally conscious view to take is not using tea bags that are bleached or made from plastic, this is why we recommend drinking loose leaf with a reusable infuser, or if you’re not ready to take the plunge we also stock our loose leaf tea in biodegradable bags!
More flavour, more health benefits and save the environment!
“We love how a cup of tea is a little moment of happiness in our day-to-day lives and the enjoyment of brewing and sipping tea is something we are super proud to be a part of!”
Drinking for wellness
The different health benefits that you can receive from teas differ among the varieties. Green and white teas are said to contain a larger number of antioxidants than Black tea, which is said to benefit general heart health. Then there are herbal teas or ‘infusions’ - these include Rooibos and other plants such as peppermint or chamomile.
Tea blenders like ourselves can then blend different varieties of teas, herbs, oils and spices in order to create speciality tea blends that are not only delicious but that also benefit you in different ways.
Do Not Disturb – Herbal, sleepy blend
Tasting Notes: Chamomile & Honeysuckle
Designed to promote holistic well-being and relaxation, this ayurvedic blend combines lemongrass, apple, rose hip, chamomile, lavender, peppermint, tulsi and valerian root. A natural wellness blend to help you wind down, this tea is best drunk in the evening or before bed to aid sleep.
Re-Energise Me – Energy-boosting blend
Tasting Notes: Sweet Greens & Lemon Peel
An organic and energy boosting blend of gunpowder green tea, matcha, yerba mate, spirulina, guarana and lemongrass. The Gunpowder green tea adds a full flavour to this tea, without being too overpowering, whilst lemongrass balances the cup, leaving you with a cleansing and refreshing flavour.
Matcha Magic
We would have to say that the superpower of all teas has to be Matcha. Matcha powder is made from finely ground green tea leaves that were grown in the shade, allowing the leaves to maintain the most nutrients, which are then passed onto you when you drink the tea!
Matcha is full of antioxidants (over 10x traditional green tea) and is often referred to as ‘clean energy’ as it also has a higher caffeine content than other teas. The benefit of Matcha being that due to the combination of other nutrients, there are no negative side effects to the higher caffeine content, as the caffeine gets released over a longer period of time in the body. This means Matcha works well for prolonged concentration and relaxation. It’s also a great alternative to that third coffee of the day!
If you’re already a tea-connoisseur or you’re ready to dip your toe into the world of loose-leaf tea, then look no further. Born Wild Tea have carefully curated a collection of 25+ refreshing tea blends for you to enjoy from home -including their create your own gift bundle - you’re bound to find something to your taste.
Stay tuned for Charlotte’s Ultimate Masala Chai Tea Latte recipe to make at home!
We’ve also teamed up with both BWT and their sister company Fire&Flow to offer our Blushes customers an exclusive offer to use. Quote BLUSHES10 on both websites to enjoy a 10% discount off your first online order!
