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--

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
http://www.amazing-green-tea.com

" writes:

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.

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:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.f...fbfcdfa3b7b70c

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html

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]