Sunday, March 1, 2009

Wu Long or Wu Yi Tea for Beautiful Skin?

By Caitlin Ryan

Finally catching on in the Western world, wu yi and wu long tea have been drunk for centuries in China and other Asian regions. Your answer to beautiful skin may be in this wonderfully flavored, relaxing tea. Tea has the ability to fight premature aging and improve overall health.

Among oolong teas, wu long and wu yi have both become highly popular teas for weight loss as well as fighting aging. They are both incredibly healthy teas, but why is one touted over the other? Let us explore the world of tea for a moment.

Tea begins as a plant called camellia sinensis. The tea leaves are picked at different times and then prepared in different ways. The four major teas are black tea, green tea, white tea and oolong tea and they are fermented in different ways or harvested at different times.

White tea and green tea are unfermented and considered highly nutritious, yet they have a bit of a bitter, grassy flavor. White tealeaves are picked prior to the opening of the bud making it a bit milder. Black tea is fermented for a long time and thus, it is not as nutritious as green tea; however, the flavor is more agreeable to our Western palates.

Oolong tea is fermented for a short time. Because the process is shorter, oolong tea is still highly nutritious, but the fermenting process makes the tea milder in aroma and flavor. Wu long and wu yi tea are both oolong teas. Wu long tealeaves are harvested during the first cycle of leaf growth on the tea plant. The plant is then allowed to regenerate for more cycles of growth and harvest.

Tea salespeople would have you believe that this makes a huge impact on the flavor and quality of the tea, but wu yi and wu long tea are similarly flavored AND they both are capable of promoting youthful, healthy looking, radiant skin! The main difference? Price! Wu long is more expensive.

Tea can be compared to wine in this manner. Though there are some lovely wines available for $50 or more a bottle, if you can purchase a $20 bottle of Shiraz that is quite enjoyable, why spend $50? At the same time, you probably would not find the same enjoyment with a bottle of Shiraz that cost $5, right? For this reason, you probably will not find a lot of wu yi tea on the supermarket shelves next to the economy packs of black tea!

Both wu yi and wu long teas contain the highly effective antioxidants capable of helping you maintain youthful skin! This is because of their ability to fight free radicals and the damage they incur on your skin and overall health. In regard to your skin, these antioxidants can stave off wrinkles and improve the tone of your skin because they fight the free radicals that cause wrinkled, sagging, fragile skin.

As well, the antioxidants in wu yi tea can help restore a healthy complexion because they are key in skin cell regeneration and repair of damaged cells. A lovely mug of wu yi tea can also calm your body, mind and spirit and reduce stress. - 15275

About the Author: