Table of Contents The Magic of Green Tea Table of Contents Introduction History of Tea How to recognize Green Tea How to Prepare Green Tea Health Benefits of Green Tea Best Detoxifying Agent Cardiovascular Diseases Stress Buster Weight Loss through Green Tea Cancer Fighting Properties Antiaging Properties Other Health Benefits Green Tea as a Beauty Aid Skin Rejuvenator Getting Rid of Sunburn Green Tea for Your Hair Traditional Green Tea Home Cure Remedies Basil leaf - green tea decoction Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction Since ancient times, man has been looking for healthy drinks, which could promote good health, longevity, and vitality. Green tea comes in this category. A majority of us cannot do without the cup that cheers, early in the morning. Sometimes we may even find ourselves addicted to our cup of hearty java, first thing in the morning before we can wake up completely. But since ancient times, green tea has been such a major part of the lives of people who are very careful about their health, that it is no wonder that it is one of the most popular of natural healthy drinks going in the world today. The ancient Chinese preferred going without food rather than forfeit their cup of refreshing "Cha." That is because tea was such a major part of Chinese culture in ancient times, that tea drinking ceremonies which were then adapted by Japan, were a major part of the social fabric. Even today, there are exotic teas which are going for thousands of dollars on the auction table, because they are considered to be such rare, distinguished and exotic beverages. Of the three major beverages of the world, tea is definitely the most popular. "Cha" is a word which is recognized all over the world, especially when one demands something refreshing to drink after a hard days' work at the office or sitting doing that hard days' work in the office. History of Tea Historically, tea has been assimilated in the social fabric for millenniums. Serendipity has a great hand in the knowledge of tea, like that of coffee. Coffee was supposedly found by a shepherd who had seen his goats eating some berries off a bush and then acting in a very enthusiastic and frisky manner. In the same way tea was supposedly discovered by a Chinese Emperor more than 3000 years ago. He was sitting in his garden and a few leaves of a fragrant camellia bush accidentally fell into a cauldron of boiling water in the vicinity. The resulting fragrance tempted the Emperor to sip this refreshing brew. And soon everybody in China was steeping the leaves of the Camellia in hot water and drinking the resulting infusion down. It was only later that the proper preparation of tea, in the form of drying the leaves, fermentation, oxidization and other tea preparation methods before it was packaged and sold to the consumers, became known globally down the ages. The Camellia sinensis plant is normally used for the preparation of green tea. The tea available in the market is normally found in 3 forms - black tea, green tea and oolong tea. All these teas are made through different phases of drying and intensity of the fermentation process. About 3 billion kgs of tea are consumed all over the world annually, of which the major tea drinkers are the Chinese, Japanese, Indians, which come up to 43% of the world population of tea drinkers. In ancient Eastern medicine, tea has been used as a relaxant, and healing drink. According to the Chinese, drinking lots of tea meant that you would not suffer from stomach problems, headaches, nervous tension, and any other disease, of which you could think. For the last 4000 years, tea has been an important ingredient used to cure people in alternative medicines in the East. This is normally given to the patient in either an infusion form where it is allowed to steep in water for a long time, or in decoction forms, when herbs are added to the mixture, allowed to steep and the