The Great Tea-Off

Traditional Chinese herbal remedies have been around forever but with alternative health methods gaining mainstream popularity, these teas are now available bottled in convenience stores and from franchised teashops that have popped up everywhere. Coca Cola has even gotten in on the action by acquiring a herbal tea plant in Guangdong to produce a new drink for the Hong Kong market. But are these pre-packaged drinks as healthy as their fresh counterparts?

Following traditional medicinal beliefs, most Chinese herbal teas are consumed to remove “heat.” Symptoms of “heatiness” can include dehydration and a sore throat. According to Professor Liang Liu, dean of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Baptist University, herbal tea can relieve the symptoms before an actual illness occurs.
Non-franchise herbal teashops are seemingly on every corner, with their bowls of black liquid laid out on the roadside table. For about $5-$10 each, they promise to relieve anything from coughs to constipation.

Their bottled brethren promise the same thing, but according to University of Hong Kong food science professor C.Y. Ma, fresh herbal tea from teashops have better health benefits. “The nutrients in processed foods cannot be preserved as well as in freshly prepared foods,” he says.

And while the ingredient labels trumpet a lack of preservatives, some drinks contain the vague “flavorings” in addition to an inordinately high proportion of sugar. According to the Consumer Council, on average, the bottled herbal teas available at 7-Eleven have about 35 grams of sugar per bottle, 10 percent of the recommended daily intake of sugar. Over-intake of sugar is obviously a problem and a contributing factor to diseases from tooth decay to obesity. “Given the sugar content, these drinks can do more than good, especially for people middle-aged and above, when occurrences of diabetes are more common,” Liu says.

On the other hand, Liu adds, “products from big companies will go through quality assurance testing and are guaranteed to reach certain standards. In a smaller tea shop, there is little quality assurance.” And when you consider that a lot of teashops are situated near traffic, that uncovered bowl of steaming tea suddenly looks a lot less appetizing.

Ma is on the fence when it comes to deciding whether regularly drinking herbal tea is beneficial to health. “It won’t do any harm but whether there are benefits is quite debatable.” If you do choose to drink herbal teas, make sure they’re right for your health condition. Especially in the winter months, you might want to stay away from the “cooling” teas that remove “heatiness“ and stick with teas that have cinnamon or ginger. Bottled drinks do have more sugar but Ma reminds us that it’s the total amount of sugar you consume everyday that could affect your health, so whether you go for bottled or fresh, keep an eye on your overall sugar intake.