A good tea break is always a great highlight of the day. Sipping the esteemed beverage infuses your day with renewed energy. With tons of luxury teas available worldwide, you have plenty of loose leaf tea to quench your thirst for caffeine. Apart from the regular tea from tea leaves, you will find herbal varieties with additional health benefits. Oolong tea has many health benefits. For instance, lotus may not be as popular as other herbal teas, but it stacks numerous health benefits.
Lotus is a medicinal plant that grows in water bodies. Its leaves, flowers, roots, and seeds are useful in making medicine or tea leaves. Infusion of the lotus flowers or leaves and blending them creates a floral tea flavor with numerous health benefits. If you have not tasted lotus tea before, here are some popular types to look out for when shopping.
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Lotus Leaf Tea
Lotus leaf tea is a popular herbal tea available as instant tea or tea bags. The tea is made from young leaves of a lotus plant, heat-treated to produce a fragrant beverage with a delicate test. When making the tealeaves, the young leaves are steamed or roasted before drying them. The lotus leaf tea is usually green and rolled into a pearl shape for convenient storage.
China with all their traditional medicine practises, is the likely birthplace of lotus leaf tea-producing hand-processed and superfine leaves. While lotus is caffeine-free, some blended varieties contain caffeine. When you brew the lotus leaf tea in hot water, the fragrance of the leaves oozes out, and the water turns yellow. The tea is neither sweet nor bitter, making it palatable.
If you want to lose weight, lotus leaf tea should be your companion. Its high fiber content promotes fat absorption and reduces your appetite hence promoting weight loss. Drinking lotus leaf tea can help you achieve your slimming goals without dieting. Besides, it is a popular ingredient in weight loss supplements.
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Lotus Flower Tea
You can use a fresh whole flower to make tea by steeping it in hot green tea. You can also simmer the dried petals in hot water to infuse a floral scent and slightly bitter taste. Making lotus flower tea is a practice adopted from Buddhists who believe a white lotus flower symbolizes fortune and enlightenment. It is challenging to find fresh lotus flowers, but you can find dried petals with a similar flavor and aroma. You can also buy lotus tea online with the aromatic flavor and enjoy its benefits.
Most lotus flower teas are blended with green tea leaves to boost caffeine levels. Besides, blending the two ingredients boosts the health benefits and creates a potent beverage.
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Vietnamese Lotus
In Vietnam, manufacturers flavor green tea with the scents of the lotus flower. Vietnamese tea has been around for ages and is one of the most ancient tea varieties. Traditionally, a lotus flower symbolized good fortune and purity, and people used it to confer a floral scent to tea during celebratory events and traditional festivals.
Lotus tea was popular during the Nguyen Dynasty since it was a favorite beverage for King Tu Duc. The servants would peel back the delicate petals and cover them with green tea overnight. In the morning, they would remove the green tea with the sweet fragrance from the lotus flower.
Vietnamese lotus is still made by stuffing green tea leaves into lotus flowers or baking the tea leaves with the petals. Since the Vietnamese lotus is potent, you should only brew it for two minutes to enjoy its health benefits. Apart from reducing weight, it controls blood sugar levels and keeps your blood pressure in check.
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Lotus Root Tea
The lotus root tea made from infusing lotus roots to tealeaves is widely used in Japan to remedy respiratory problems. You can use dried, sliced, or powdered roots to make the tea. When using sliced lotus roots, you can steep them in hot tea to infuse the scent. Alternatively, you can soak dried lotus roots in water and use it to prepare tea. Lotus roots have medicinal properties that will transfer to your tea.
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Lotus Seed Tea
Instead of using petals or roots, you can infuse the lotus scent and health benefits to your tea by adding dried or steamed lotus seeds. You can boil the seed alongside green tea leaves, and your tea will acquire a unique taste.
Tea made from lotus provides a sweet and floral taste and introduces various health benefits to your beverage. If you haven’t tried lotus flavors, you can find them at online tea and coffee shop.