Jasmine Green Tea: Facts, Recipe, And 8 Amazing Benefits

Daily waking up early in the morning, exercising for an hour and eating a healthy breakfast can sometimes feel too much to stay fit and fine. After all that, drinking regular green tea can feel like a huge task just to stay healthy. What if I tell you that the green tea does not have to be boring?

Jasmine green tea is one such tea that will make your fitness routine a lot more interesting and filled with the aroma of jasmine flowers. Jasmine green tea combines the best benefits of green tea with the light flavor of jasmine and a decent aroma. If this tea has already caught your attention then let’s dive in and get to know more about this tea.

A Background Check

The popularity of jasmine green tea goes back to the 12th century since the Ming dynasty of China. After that, the tea started becoming more popular as the people in China love anything floral and they were sort of obsessed with the tea.

Jasmine is a flower that has its presence in almost every field like embroidery, painting, décor, literature, and porcelain. Since jasmine is present in so many fields, and the fact that people love flowers, it is not at all surprising that jasmine found its way up in cuisine as well.

After jasmine tea was introduced in the 12th century, as years passed, the flavors of this tea began to spread during the reign of the Qing dynasty. During this time, palate pleasers like orange, bergamot, and lychee were very popular for their scent and flavor, and jasmine having both made its way up there.

The delicate flavor and the heartwarming aroma of jasmine are what made people fall in love with jasmine tea. It carried a taste such that once tasted, everyone would desire more. Jasmine tea is one of those few flavored teas which was traded in the world. Even though the jasmine tree is aromatic and flavorful, it is also intoxicating.

Botanical Background

It may surprise you but jasmine belongs to the family of olives (Oleaceae) as I have even mentioned in the above table. A lot of you may be wondering about jasmine’s origin but the flower is so ancient that it is uncertain.

However, we know that it was from China that the trade began. Apart from that, it is also known that these plants are native to the Middle East. The plant is found in many places like India, parts of the Himalayas, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, and even Pakistan whose national flower is Jasmine.

How Is Jasmine Green Tea Made?

One of the species of jasmine named Jasminum Sambac also named Sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines. This species is found to be grown in some parts of India in the stretches of Eastern Himalayas and Southeast Asia.

The industrial category of flavored and scented teas where teas like bergamot-infused earl grey and more are included in the category into which our jasmine green tea falls into. This is the category in which you can find several flavored and scented teas which have different spices, flowers, fruits, natural or artificial flavors, extracts, and oils.

Now, generally, people don’t really like the taste of green tea. When jasmine is added to this green tea, it gives an additional aromatic flavor with its intoxicating scent. Certainly, this is one of the major reasons why jasmine green tea is popular. Not only that but, there are many people who like jasmine tea with a base of black and white tea.

If you talk about how jasmine tea was made traditionally it is very different from how it is made today. People loved and adored this jasmine tea in traditional times because of its tender sweetness and soothing aroma. The perfect balance that the jasmine tea has between the delicacy of tea leaves and the floral blossoms is adorable.

Now, as you can see how beautiful this tea is and how much people adore its flavor, it is certain that it takes a lot of effort to produce such an amazing tea. Also, it requires a good amount of skill and care to do so. Let us now look at the journey of the traditional jasmine tea from farm to the packet.

Now, this was all about the traditional process of how jasmine tea leaves are manufactured. Along with being traditional, this method also requires a lot of hard work. As time advanced the demand for jasmine tea increased so newer faster processes had to be introduced.

These days, the tea leaves may be scented separately with natural jasmine blossoms, flavors, and even jasmine oil. By doing so, the tea jasmine tea leaves can be manufactured throughout the year without having to wait for the harvest period.

Benefits Of Jasmine Green Tea

Now that you know about the background of this tea and also know how it is manufactured, it is now time to see how beneficial this tea is. Before we start, let me just take a moment and appreciate the benefits of this tea. Let’s begin with an ocean of health benefits.

Antioxidants

Starting with, Jasmine Green Tea acts as a powerhouse of antioxidants in our body. When you consume jasmine green tea, there is an increase in antioxidants in your body as it has compounds called polyphenols.

These polyphenols protect your body from the free radicals that may cause damage to the cells in your body. These free radicals can be dangerous as it is found that they can lead to diseases and problems related to heart and even cancer.

Jasmine green tea is loaded with polyphenols and they are known as catechins. One of the most powerful catechins present in this green tea is EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) and this helps you in improving blood sugar levels, oral health, heart health, and also weight loss.

These EGCG antioxidants not only have these health benefits but also render anti-inflammatory effects as well as blood lipid lowering effects. These health benefits help reduce any risks related to heart diseases.

Oral Health

Jasmine green tea is said to have a great number of catechins, they are nothing but a bunch of polyphenols. These polyphenols are something that helps to fight tooth decay and cavities. They also have the ability to kill bacteria like Streptococcus that forms plague.

You will find it interesting that some researchers have found that catechins have the ability to stop the Streptococcus bacteria from producing acid. Well, you would know that acid is bad for tooth health and it erodes the tooth enamel.

Further research has even found that a mouthwash made of catechins present in the jasmine green tea helps reduce plaque on a pretty large scale. The use of this catechin mouthwash was seen to be as effective as an antiseptic mouthwash would be. Other than that, jasmine green tea also helps to fight bad breath.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes as everyone would know of is one of the disorders that a large number of people in the world suffer from. Now, there are two types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2 where both are related to insulin in our body. Among these, type 2 is the one in which our body resists the work of insulin.

Jasmine green tea is said to work well with blood sugar levels and helps in reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes. Now, those of you who are aware of diabetes, know that insulin is something very important in maintaining blood sugar levels.

Many studies have found that consuming jasmine green tea helps to reduce fasting blood sugar levels on a large scale. On the other hand, consuming jasmine green tea twice or thrice a day is found to reduce type 2 diabetes by 16%.

Weight Loss

We all know that green tea is generally popular among those people who are looking to lose weight. So, if you were wondering if jasmine green tea also aids in weight loss then the answer is, yes, it certainly does.

Consumption of jasmine green tea works wonders in weight loss as it helps to increase metabolism and aid the fat burning process. Studies have shown that the metabolism increase is said to be by 4-5%, it may not sound a lot but it helps to burn about 100 calories in a day.

On the other hand, this tea also helps to increase the fat burning process and that is done by about 15%. These amazing properties of this green tea help in aiding the weight loss process, isn’t it amazing?

Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease

You must be thinking that how can a green tea help with such diseases? Well, that is the beauty of our jasmine green tea as it has so many health benefits. Now, as we even saw earlier, this tea is an amazing source for polyphenols and EGCG.

These polyphenols and EGCG are the ones that do the job for your body as they are anti-inflammatory in nature and also fight free radicals. And this is what makes them help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

There are proteins in our brain that may misfold or clump and this misfolding and clumping may lead to nerve damage in the brain and also inflammation. Studies have shown that EGCG is something that helps to stop the misfolding and clumping of the proteins. This is how it lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Many studies have shown that consumption of this green tea has about 15% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. Other than that, studies have even found that consuming jasmine green tea on a daily basis can even help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders by about 35%.

Heart Health

Yes, jasmine green tea also helps to maintain our heart health. So, again as this tea has polyphenols and so this is what protects us from heart disease. I know that I have been talking about polyphenols under every heading but polyphenols are such compounds that have a lot of health benefits. So, you can expect more of this.

The bad (LDL) cholesterol is something that may harm our heart if oxidized. Studies have found that polyphenols help to stop this bad cholesterol from oxidizing. To tell you more about this, the oxidized cholesterol is so bad for our heart that it may clog blood vessels.

Many studies have been done on the effects on heart health. So, one of those studies has stated that people who consume about 3 cups of jasmine green tea have about 21% lower risk of heart disease. Other than that it also reduces the chances of strokes by 36% and heart attacks by 19%.

Cancer

As I have even mentioned even earlier, the antioxidant properties in this green tea are called polyphenols which helps fight free radicals, and may lower the risk of cancer. So, studies have proven that these polyphenols and EGCG helps in killing cancer cells, suppresses growth and spread of cancer cells, and also helps in reducing tumor sizes.

Further studies have found out that consuming 10 Japanese size cups of jasmine green tea along with some tablets could reduce the recurrence of cancer cells in colon cancer by about 52%. Not only that but, it can also help reduce the risk of breast and prostate cancer, amazing, right?

Brain Function

Jasmine tea also helps a lot when it comes to boosting brain function. To begin with, one cup of jasmine tea serves about 20 to 60 mg caffeine per 237 ml. However, the caffeine content highly depends on how long the tea leaves are in your tea.

As caffeine lovers would know that it helps to aid the neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine which help to enhance mood. Other than that, studies have found that consuming jasmine green tea helps to keep you energetic, alert, and helps to improve short-term memory.

Apart from this, jasmine tea consists of L-theanine which is an amino acid. This L-theanine works as a triggering element for an inhibitory neurotransmitter, Gamma-aminobutyric acid also known as GABA. This neurotransmitter is related to relaxing your mind and increasing alertness.

So, collectively, caffeine and L-theanine work in such a way that it helps a lot in boosting brain function.

Jasmine Green Tea Recipe

Well, after looking at all these mind-blowing health benefits, wouldn’t you want to know how to make this amazing jasmine green tea. So, don’t you worry, I am here with an easy to make recipe for you.

I suppose almost everyone knows how to make tea with tea leaves. So, here I am going to provide you with a recipe that has a twist that is delicious and also easy to prepare. Let’s begin.

Jasmine Green Tea With Honey And Lemon Twist

Steps

1. Put the tea bag or tea leaves in simmering water along with a few mint leaves and leave it for 2-4 minutes. Do not use boiling water.
2. Now, after a couple of minutes, strain your tea in a glass or cup.
3. Add your honey and give it a nice stir until the honey dissolves completely.
4. Add cold water.
5. Now, refrigerate your drink for about 2 hours or even for a lesser time as convenient.
6. Lastly garnish with some mint leaves and add ice if required, and enjoy!

Closure | Jasmine Green Tea

Well, this was all about jasmine green tea. Have you ever heard about a tea that holds so many benefits before? What more could you ask for in a tea? For a tea to have so many health benefits is just amazing and it is also very easy to prepare.

Jasmine green tea holds a special place ever since the 12th century and is providing us with its soothing aroma and delicate taste. I would highly recommend you to try out this beautiful tea if you haven’t already and if you have then do try out the new recipe I have mentioned. Lastly, if you have any suggestions do mention them in the comments section.

Till then, Have a good tea and Stay Healthy!