Green tea is China's national drink but black tea is the most popular drink in the United States and the rest of the world.

Most research lately has been centered on green tea, however, drinking black tea has been found to have many of the same benefits attributed to drinking green tea. Black tea is favored in Saudi Arabia, where a study found that regularly drinking darkly brewed black tea can reduce the risk of heart disease by fifty percent. This has been seen worldwide.

Black tea, after picking, is withered, rolled, allowed to ferment fully or oxidize, giving it the distinctive  color we recognize, then exposed to high heat over fire or in commercial ovens and dried, then sorted for size by sifting.

Loose tea makes a wonderfully traditional cup of tea, but the invention of the tea bag in 1904 offered a new convenient way to brew tea. Tea bags have leaves of smaller size from the siftings therefore produce an infusion of stronger tea. Today tea is gaining in populatity over coffee.

All types of tea contain much less caffeine than coffee. A nicely brewed cup of black tea offers a pleasant relief from fatigue. The amount of caffeine produced per cup varies with the length of infusion in boiling water. Three to five minutes produces a generally satisfying amount of caffeine for a pick-me-up, whereas a shorter steep will produce a more relaxing drink.

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