New Blog 1: Personalized Tea Bags

Saturday, 13 October 2012

Personalized Tea Bags

The fact that bottled water is a waste of money is news to no one. But what about bottled tea? As companies market the traditionally staid beverage in easy-to-grab, already-brewed bottles over outdated tea bags or loose leaves, they champion the beverage’s antioxidants. Unfortunately for their marketing campaign, it looks like they’ve forfeited substance for style.A new study by the biotechnology company Wellgen concludes that bottled tea is likely to contain significantly fewer antioxidants than the home-brewed version. Antioxidants are known to protect cells from certain types of damage and are suspected to help prevent diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Yet already-bottled teas tend to compensate for antioxidants with sugar. Since antioxidants (polyphenols, specifically) are bitter in taste and consumers are generally drawn to sweets, tipping the ratio in favor of sugar benefits sales—but not health.