710EGCG® Green Tea

In ancient China, tea was used as both food and as a way to maintain good health. Tea was originally described as “bitter sprouts” in the old language. All teas were good for health purpose, first cultivated by the Taoists functioning as physicians in the tea gardens of their monasteries. The terms of green tea, black tea and oolong tea did not exist in the ancient Chinese language because all teas were green tea by today’s definition.

Natural green tea drink has an astringent taste, “bitter” to those not used to it. The taste of the green tea harvested from the same plantation is influenced by weather, which determines the ratios of the various kinds of chemicals, such as the polyphenols, or cathechins, in the tea leaves. Humans cannot control the weather. Therefore, no one can really fix the taste of green tea from year to year, like one can for the taste of certain brand-named black teas and woolong teas whose tastes are largely determined by a manufacturing process, called oxidation or “fermentation”, which can be controlled. In chemical terms, dried young leaves freshly harvested from the tea trees cultivated as they were 2,000 years ago should have the following qualities.

Total tea catechins: 10% dry weight minimum
EGCG: (-)-epigallocatechin gallate: 7.1% dry weight minimum (see note)
Heavy metals: Lead residues not to exceed 5 ppm.*
Pesticides: No detectable Organochlorines, Organophosphates, Organonitrogens and Carbamates by a certified laboratory in the USA.*
Fluoride: Not to exceed of 240 ppm fluoride. *

Note: This specification meets the standard for typical green tea defined by the US National Cancer Institute for cancer research if a customary 1:100 w/v dry tea leaf-to-water ratio is used to brew tea drinks. [Reference: NCI, DCPC, Chemoprevention Branch and Agent Development Committee, Clinical development plan: tea extracts green tea polyphenols epigallocatechin gallate. J Cell Biochemistry 1996;26S:236-257.]

* Young tea leaves harvested freshly 2,000 years ago were all good for health purpose because the EGCG level was always high and the fluoride low in young leaves; and no leaded gasoline or chemical insecticides were in use on earth then.