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Tea of the Month – August

Beautiful Skin
Red clover is such a common sight in our fields during the summer, but did you know it has amazing health benefits? When researching for this piece I was shocked to find that this simple flower can have so many positive effects on our health, particularly when brewed as a tea. Often used fresh in salads, we chose to use dried flowers in our Beautiful Skin tisane, and combined the clover with other summer blooms, dandelion, elderflower and chamomile, knowing this would be the best blend for promoting healthy, clear skin.
Like all of our other bespoke wellness teas, Beautiful Skin benefits the whole body, particularly the respiratory system, but as red clover is said to contain compounds that mimic estrogen, it is particularly good for the skin. It promotes elasticity, reducing the appearance of aging, keeping the skin youthful and supple. Combined with  chamomile, a famous anti-inflammatory, dandelion flowers, rich in minerals required for healthy skin function, and nettle, a powerful astringent, this tea is an antioxidant powerhouse, tailored to promote healthy, clear, beautiful skin.
It brews to a light gold, almost clear, and has a delicate, slightly floral flavour. It would be perfect just before bed.
Extravagant Earl Grey
Earl Grey, one of the most widely drunk teas in the world, is given a decadent lift in our bespoke Extravagant Earl Grey. We combine our bergamot infused Chinese black tea with rose flowers, lavender and cornflowers to produce a deliciously floral, aromatic, tea that has a wonderful hint of sweetness.
There are many stories about the origin of the Earl Grey blend, which has been known in England since at least the 1830s. It is assumed to be named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, the British Prime Minister in the 1830s. The most exciting of these stories proclaims that the blend was presented to the Earl by a grateful Chinese diplomat whose son was rescued from drowning by one of Lord Grey’s men!
This perfumed black tea is very versatile, and as we love experimenting, we chose to add our Extravagant Earl Grey to a cake mix to create a decadent Earl Grey and Lavender sponge layer cake. It’s proving to be extremely popular! Similarly, we have found that this blend of Earl Grey works really well as a latte, both hot and iced. With the pink rose petals and blue cornflowers, this is a beautiful blend to use as a cold brew.

Can a Cup of Tea Fight Inflammation?

Inflammation is a process by which the body’s white blood cells and substances they produce protect us from infection with foreign organisms, such as bacteria and viruses.

However, in some diseases, like arthritis, the body’s defense system triggers an inflammatory response when there are no foreign invaders to fight off. This is known as autoimmune diseases.

There are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation arises after a cut or scrape in the skin, site of injury or sore throats. It is short-term and the effects subside after a few days.

Chronic (sometimes called systemic) inflammation is long-term and occurs in conditions such as lupus, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma. If left untreated, chronic inflammation can unfortunately lead to more serious health issues. Some key factors that contribute to autoimmune diseases can be due to lifestyle, genetic predisposition, lack of exercise, stress, poor diet, smoking, excessive alcohol and pollution in the environment.

Thankfully, by making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle choices may keep inflammation under control. By learning how specific foods influence the inflammatory response could be the best strategy for containing it, even though some establishments say that hard evidence is lacking.

Anti-inflammatory food diets are generally what health nutritionist advice you to eat such as fruit and veggies, whole grains, nuts which contain healthy fat to stop inflammation, fish, herbs and spices.

If you are looking to keep your inflammation levels under control through lifestyle changes and dietary means, then you may want to consider the following;

  • Eat a variety of colourful, whole, plant food in their natural state
  • Avoid or limit processed foods
  • Stay hydrated with water
  • Exercise often – ensure regular movement in your daily routine
  • Sleep – make sure you get good quality sleep and find breathing exercises and meditation to keep stress levels down

The best anti-inflammatory herbs and spices known are cloves, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne pepper, basil, sage, coriander, ginger, and peppermint.

Drink tea to fight inflammation

 The best teas to help fight inflammation are peppermint, fennel, cinnamon, ginger, nettle leaf, rose hips, matcha and most types of green teas. Black teas also help with keeping inflammation at bay because it is rich in quercetin, a bioflavanoid that has anti-inflammatory effects. Black tea can be high in caffeine depending on how it’s brewed so you may want to brew lighter infusions.

 Its best to try a variety of teas over the week so that your taste buds develop and learns to appreciate the healing effect of different flavours and subtle notes of sweet and woody herbs and floral and fruity characters of green teas.

 Here are some recommendations from the Camellia’s Tea Collection which we think will help the body to alkaline and reduce inflammation.

 Handmade wellness herbal infusions:

Can a Cup of Tea Help Fight Inflammation

For the healing effect try longer brews for herbal infusions to boost the tea’s potency.

Green teas:

  • Anji Bai Cha is a delicate spring green tea with a very pale green colour
  • Ceylon Green tea – this is rare and one of the finest organic green teas
  • China Gunpowder is one of the most widely drunk teas in China
  • Green Mint is invigorating which combines strength and quality
  • Lung Ching also known as “Dragonwell” renowned for its quality and flavour
  • Matcha Premium is of a ceremonial quality and classic for the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony

Avoid steeping green in water that is too hot for longer than 3-4 minutes, as this will result in a bitter brew.


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