Oolong Tea

For hundreds of years in Asia, Oolong tea has been respected for its medicinal qualities and great taste. Recently, it has been marketed heavily here in the states as a weight loss product. You may have seen advertisements with crazy claims of losing “20 pounds in a month” or some other such nonsense.

But don’t let the marketing hype turn you off. Even though Oolong isn’t going to cause you to drop 20 pounds without any effort, it actually does have a slimming effect (along with a whole other host of health benefits).

We’ll discuss those benefits below, but first you should know what Oolong tea is and how it differs from Black and Green tea.

Tea is made through a process called oxidation, which is a careful process of bruising and withering the leaves. Oxidization will determine how dark the tea is, how it tastes, and how much caffeine is in the tea.

Black tea is fully oxidized, while Green tea is not oxidized at all. Somewhere in the middle (and the hardest to make and actually get right) is Oolong tea. Oolong combines the full flavor and delicious taste of black tea, with some of the best health qualities of green tea.

Although Oolong has a full flavor and aroma (like black tea), it has its own distinct and wonderful taste. It’s best described as fresh, yet strong, without a hint of bitterness.

Packed with antioxidants and other important nutrients, Oolong isn’t just delicious, it’s also extremely good for you. Here are just some of the many benefits that you'll get from consuming Oolong tea.

Oolong Aids in Weight Loss: Not only does Oolong stimulate the nervous system and give a nice boost to your metabolism, but it also contains a hefty dose of polyphenols, a substance that help dissolve excess triglyceride (a substance that is normally used as fuel for the body, but gets stored as fat when there’s too much of it). In simple terms, Oolong tea is a natural obesity fighter.

Oolong Fights Free Radicals: Free radicals are nasty little toxins that are responsible for causing damage to the cells in your body. They may be responsible for cellular damage, diseases, and the aging process. Oolong tea contains high amounts of potent antioxidants that help to fight these free radicals and keep your body in tip-top shape.

Oolong Detoxifies the Body: Oolong helps to produce a clean alkaline environment in the body. This makes it hard for bacteria, fungus, and other toxic microbes to live there.

Oolong Helps Your Teeth and Gums: By killing bacteria in the stomach, Oolong prevents bad breath and removes plaque. A Japanese University ran a study on this very subject and confirmed that regular drinking of Oolong tea actually strengthened teeth and helped to prevent tooth decay.

Although you can brew it in teabags, many people prefer loose leaf Oolong tea. Loose leaf tea requires a little more work but is usually a higher quality which means it has a slightly better taste.

Whichever you choose, you’ll get best results with pure, spring water instead of tap water. The preferred water temperature for Oolong tea is roughly just as soon as it boils and recommended steeping time is three to five minutes.

If you’re using loose leaf tea you may want to buy a tea infuser. Some people prefer making tea the old fashioned way. Check out the video below for complete instructions on using traditional tools.