Brew tea in the pot for healthiest cuppa

With everything you hear about tea nowadays, we're almost to the point of just hooking everyone up to an intravenous drip. Tea helps memory, alleviates arthritis, and even wards off skin cancer. But this article isn't about another benefit of drinking tea. Instead, this one is about scientists who have targeted how to get the most out of your daily cuppa (and it's not via the quick tea bag).

Getting the maximum benefits from a cup of tea is directly related to the infusion time it goes through. Scientists studied volunteers who drank black tea that was brewed from one to ten minutes. What they were looking for was the amount of antioxidants in the blood due to polyphenols. These naturally occurring antioxidants help fight against cancer.

It turns out that dunking a bag of tea for a quick one-minute infusion is less healthy than a five-minute brew. Antioxidant levels in volunteers who had the five-minute infusion were 60% higher than those other guys. But if it goes for any longer than five minutes, the benefits level off. The moral of the story here is to brew your tea for five minutes if you want the ultimate healthy cuppa, but it won't kill you to keep using the good 'ol bag for a quick fix.