Once in Chiang Mai, I was offered some Chrysanthemum tea เก๊กฮวย, and nearly spit it out. YUCK! It looked and tasted like the devil’s own piss. I’ve since been wary of asian tea, due to this early indoctrination. I hate to admit this bias, but this stuff just tasted really, really awful. Chrysanthemum tea is actually more popular in China and can be found in herbal medicine shops.
Finally after all these years I tried some Japanese Green Tea and I really liked it. I have long been wanting an alternative to Pepsi Max and Coke Zero and this was a desperate attempt at changing that. It was just one bottle for 20 baht and had “sugar free” on the label. There are not many things in Thailand that are sugar-free. So I bit the bullet and bought it. I was delightfully surprised and dug up this info on it:
Green tea has been shown to improve blood flow and lower cholesterol. A 2013 review of many studies found green tea helped prevent a range of heart-related issues, from high blood pressure to congestive heart failure.
What’s good for the heart is usually good for the brain; your brain needs healthy blood vessels, too. In one Swiss study, MRIs revealed that people who drank green tea had greater activity in the working-memory area of their brains. Green tea has also been shown to help block the formation of plaques that are linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Green tea seems to help keep blood sugar stable in people with diabetes. Because catechins lower cholesterol and blood pressure, they can help protect against the damage a high-fat diet can cause . . .
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/featu ... -green-tea
Another article I read espoused the relaxing effects of Japanese Green Tea. I found this to be particularly true.
Now, if you go shopping for this stuff, read the label carefully. You might not like the Japanese green tea, but if you're like me, it would be hard to ignore even on a trial basis if you're on a long-haul flight. Green teas do not at all taste the same, at least not to me. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the bottle labeling and why it’s worth reading carefully. The labels look almost exactly the same. The bottle on the left is the stuff I liked. The bottle on the right is the Chrysanthemum tea, which I didn't like at all.
There are all sort of brands, but this is my favorite.
After your modest 20-baht investment, if you like it, you can buy the really big bottle of the same stuff for 45 baht and is a better buy. It is even more economical than diet soda and better for you, too. Just make sure it says “sugar free” on the label. This brand of Japanese Green Tea is actually quite naturally sweet enough for me. I am very excited about this new discovery and wanted to share it with you. I hope you will give this a try.