Latest news with #tea
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
The Great British cuppa really could be a lifesaver, as scientists find two cups of tea a day could drastically lower your risk of heart failure and stroke - just don't add SUGAR
Britons drink 100million of them every day – and it turns out the Great British cuppa could be a lifesaver. Tea, which Oscar Wilde described as the only simple pleasure left, lowers the risk of heart problems and stroke, according to new research. Up to two cups of unsweetened tea a day reduces the risk by up to 21 per cent. But add sugar or sweeteners and the benefits are lost, say academics. Researchers from Nantong University, China, used data on 177,810 UK adults, with an average age of around 55. Of those, 147,903 were tea drinkers, and 68.2 per cent did not add sugar and sweeteners. All were healthy at the start of the study, but over an average of 12.7 years, 15,003 cases of cardiovascular disease were diagnosed, including 2,679 strokes and 2,908 heart failures, it was reported in the International Journal of Cardiology Cardiovascular Risk and Prevention. Those who drank up to two cups of unsweetened tea a day had a 21 per cent reduced risk of heart failure, a 14 per cent lesser chance of having a stroke and were 7 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease. No such effects were found for sweetened tea. It is thought an unsweetened cuppa better preserves biologically active compounds, including polyphenols, in the tea, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Both sugars and artificial sweeteners can promote insulin resistance and metabolic dysregulation, which are well-established cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Times
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Mr Tea fraudster to stew in jail after police bag their man
Tam O'Braan exuded raffish charm as he courted Country Life, the respected weekly magazine that has twice employed the King, then the Prince of Wales, as its guest editor. 'He claimed he rowed a canoe along the length of the Amazon and spent four years exploring South America,' one former staff member recalled. 'Tam also said he survived being bitten by a highly venomous spider and went on to be shot at by soldiers as he neared the border of Thailand and Myanmar on another expedition. 'He insisted it was the ideal preparation for launching Scotland's first tea plantation.' 'All this derring-do was very exciting but there was definitely a niggling feeling that it was all too good to be true.' Two years earlier, in 2015, O'Braan appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live where he told the host Nicky Campbell that his Dalreoch White tea, grown on the banks of the Tay, had been crowned the best in the world. Choking back tears he claimed he would be unable to accept the most esteemed prize at the Salon du Thé awards in Paris as his wife was about to give birth to twins. 'I suppose you could call me Mr Tea, after winning such a major award,' he crowed, after composing himself. O'Braan, known for his bespoke tweed suits, highly polished brogues and extraordinary CV, went on to assert that his homegrown brew was a personal favourite of Queen Elizabeth. However, there was no trophy, lavish awards ceremony overlooking the River Seine or a royal seal of approval. The accolade, the event and the monarch's endorsement were dreamt up by the self-styled 'adventurer, inventor, scientist and entrepreneur'. Caught up by the romance of Scottish tea, rather than whisky, being the toast of the world, no one apparently bothered to verify his outlandish claims. As such, his top blends went on to sell for £35 for a 15g tin at Fortnum & Mason's flagship store in Piccadilly, London. He continued to make a series of remarkable assertions, including that he served with both the British and Irish armed forces, played professional rugby, was headhunted by President Obama to work on an experimental agricultural project and invented the now ubiquitous 'bag for life' shopping carrier while working for Waitrose in the 1990s. This week, however, O'Braan, 55, was sentenced — under his real name of Thomas Robinson — to three-and-a-half years imprisonment after his abundant crop of fantasies and falsehoods was finally exposed and scythed down. He hoodwinked the owners of some of the country's most famed hotels, such as The Dorchester in London and Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel, as well as genuine tea growers, journalists and business owners while securing more than £550,000 through fraud. 'This was a scheme to deceive, a scheme to make money on the basis of lies,' Joanne Ritchie, for the prosecution, told him. 'You went as far as to make up these elaborate lies so you appeared to be a man of integrity.' Addressing jurors directly at Stirling sheriff court, Ritchie added: 'This man has lied to every single witness who encountered him. But more than that, he lied to the public at large.' Trading as The Wee Tea Plantation, Robinson insisted his wares — Highland Green, Silver Needles and Scottish Antlers — were grown in Perthshire and Dumfries and Galloway. However, he actually ordered vast quantities of loose leaf tea from China, Malawi and Sri Lanka, repackaged it and sold it as 'Scottish tea'. The overseas produce was then sold for 100 times its cost by dint of its rare north European provenance. Robinson disguised the fraud by getting the leaves delivered to a mailbox address in Glasgow registered to 'Thomas James Consultants', while his suppliers were ordered to sign non-disclosure agreements. Between 2015 and 2018 Robinson also supplied more than 22,000 'Scottish tea plants' to a dozen other growers at a cost of £12.50 each. They actually received plants sourced, at a price of €3 each, from an Italian nursery. Robinson told the Royal Horticultural Society he had invented a 'special biodegradable polymer' that allowed tea cultivation to thrive in the temperate Scottish climate. When challenged to demonstrate it he briefly brandished what appeared to be an ordinary supermarket-issue black bin liner. By 2017 Perth and Kinross council & Food Standards Scotland, a government agency, launched after the horsemeat scandal, were alerted and began to investigate. Robinson told investigators, confronted by largely empty fields, that the vast majority of his plants had been stolen overnight by thieves and insisted the paperwork that could verify his claims had been destroyed in a flood. In court Robinson insisted he had recently 'tripped over an electrical wire and fell into the basement of a castle', leaving him in poor health and unable to remember many events. As he was led away in handcuffs after being unanimously found guilty, Robinson continued to protest his innocence, bleating: 'My life's work will stand in the history of tea.' Ron McNaughton, a former police detective who is head of the Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit, insisted Robinson was an inveterate liar who deserved little sympathy. 'His actions caused real financial and reputational harm to individuals, businesses and the developing sector of genuine Scottish tea producers,' he said. The Balmoral Hotel, whose guests have included Dwight D Eisenhower, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Bill Clinton and JK Rowling, has issued a public apology for inadvertently serving fake Scottish tea. 'To have been deceived in such a calculated manner left us all profoundly disappointed and embarrassed,' Andrew McPherson, its general manager, said. 'I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to anyone affected by this tea incident, particularly our loyal guests who trusted in the authenticity and quality of our offerings.'
CBC
a day ago
- Business
- CBC
Matcha is having a moment — and it's putting pressure on Japan's tea industry
Social Sharing It's the latest beverage du jour — and for people needing their morning pick-me-up, matcha tea increasingly beats espresso as their caffeine fix of choice. "I worked on the bar a few weeks ago and I think past a certain point, you don't just skim milk, you don't pull shots. Everything you do is matcha," said Nadiia Semenichenko, regional manager at 10 Dean, a café and bar in Toronto. Demand for the finely powdered tea — usually sourced from Japan and unmistakable for its vivid green colour and earthy taste — has gone supernova since the fall, mostly thanks to the legions of influencers swearing by it on social media and viral videos that are racking up millions of views, say experts who spoke to CBC News. But that fervour has shaken up matcha's delicate supply chain, ultimately leading to a global shortage that is putting pressure on Japan's tea industry to ramp up production of the scarce commodity. Semenichenko's cafe has sought out new suppliers to keep up with the demand, noting that one of them has put a cap on how much matcha the café could buy each month. "By the end of this year, we'll feel substantial price increases in matcha, for sure," she said, referring to the café's costs. And those who follow the Japanese tea industry say it's only a matter of time before customers who love the foamy, verdant drink get hit by a serious price hike. WATCH | How a matcha frenzy upended a delicate supply chain: Matcha frenzy upends delicate global supply chain 11 hours ago Duration 2:03 A sudden shortage Matcha is made from ground tencha, a type of green tea leaf that is shade-grown — giving it a more intense flavour and a deeper colour — before being steamed, dried, destemmed and passed through a milling machine to produce a powder. The highest-grade version of matcha, used for Japanese tea ceremonies, is harvested in spring. It's passed through a stone mill, making it a time and resource-consuming process that produces only a small quantity of the final product. Semenichenko says using ceremonial matcha as a baking ingredient or in lattes is like "if you buy really expensive whiskey and put it in whisky and Coke." But when demand for matcha ticked sharply upward last fall, people were suddenly rushing to buy the high-grade version of the product. "Even tea ceremony schools in Japan suddenly couldn't find the matcha they would usually buy," said Anna Poian, a co-founder of the Global Japanese Tea Association. Some of the most popular matcha brands in Japan — including Ippodo Tea, Yamasan and Marukyu Koyamaen — published apology notes to their customers and announced they would have to put limits on how much and what kind of matcha products they would sell to their buyers. At that time, matcha producers "were not really facing a real shortage, but they didn't expect so much demand," explained Poian. But the onslaught of matcha-related viral videos combined with record-high tourism to Japan — induced by a weak yen — had people clamouring for the tea, ultimately leading to a run on existing supply and a production shortage. Now, the craze has spurred major coffee shops and restaurant chains to step up their matcha offerings so they can cash in, too. Most Starbucks locations have served matcha drinks for years, but the coffee giant added a whole suite of specialty matcha drinks last summer. Matcha is on the menu at Booster Juice, Tim Hortons and McDonalds, too, though the companies didn't respond when asked when they added it. Big retailers aren't immune to the shortage, either. Second Cup, which added another matcha latte to its menu in April, has recently dealt with delays in receiving its matcha supply, a spokesperson told CBC News. Changing tides in Japan's tea-farming industry The shortage is also a product of changes in Japan's domestic tea industry over the last two decades. Within the country, both the consumption and production of tea have declined, and its tea-farming population is aging with few successors to take over. "They don't see much of a future because the Japanese tea industry has been in decline for the past 15 to 20 years, due to the decrease in local consumption," explained Poian, whose organization publishes monthly reports on the industry. Conversely, exports of Japanese tea to other countries are on the rise. In April 2025, total exports of Japanese tea were up 85.7 per cent from the same month the previous year, according to data from an industry group. Canada's own intake of green tea from Japan has increased by 118 per cent since 2015, a spokesperson for Global Affairs told CBC News. Compounding the problem is the fact that matcha makes up just six per cent of Japan's total tea production, according to Poian. "More farmers are shifting and focusing their production to matcha, but this unfortunately is not an easy switch," she said. Countries like China and Vietnam produce matcha, too, but the Japanese version is considered premium. The Japanese government's farming ministry, in an effort to ramp up matcha production for the export market, is reportedly recommending that farmers replace their sencha — another type of green tea leaf — with tencha. That shift isn't easy, even for the industry's experienced workforce, says Jason Eng, head of business development and partnerships at Kametani Tea, a tea production company based in Nara, Japan. "Many of these farmers don't have the resources to do that — to upgrade all the machines or just change the machines altogether. So the investment costs a lot," he said. Kametani Tea, which exports about 25 to 30 per cent of its product to international beverage companies, suppliers and wholesalers, will have to raise prices once the next harvest is ready. And those price shocks will eventually trickle down to matcha-loving consumers at cafés. "It's gonna be really hard to digest, I think, for the consumers at the end with this huge surge of demand," he said. 'It just gets sold out' After developing a taste for matcha, Cheena Lerum started posting recipe videos on her TikTok account. But the Toronto content creator noticed earlier this year that she got more views when she offered recommendations for where to buy and source matcha. "You know when bubble tea became really famous a few years ago?" she said, referring to the Taiwanese tea drink that exploded in popularity during the mid-2010s. "Matcha's becoming that now." Lerum, who has almost 30,000 followers on the platform, said she thinks "all the time" about whether she's contributing to the matcha shortage. She posts about the tea less frequently on social media now, partly because she hasn't been able to find her favourite products. "They say don't gate-keep, but sometimes there are brands that you like and then it becomes too popular and it just gets sold out," Lerum explained. She's also noticed prices creeping up: a 30-gram tin of matcha powder that she used to buy online for $35 now costs almost $50, she said. Back at the café, a few customers are sipping on matcha lattes. "I just find that it's a much better alternative to coffee," said Danielle Pineda, who says matcha energizes her without giving her coffee-like jitters. She has her own matcha whisk and often makes the drink at home. Tommy Tanga, another customer at the cafe, said he finds the current price of matcha reasonable — a café order usually costs about $5 to $7, depending on the type of drink. It's been his go-to order ever since he tried it during a trip to Japan. "I'm worried that it's going to get more expensive," he said.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Scottish hoaxers are in on the great tea swindle – but what about Meghan's and Fergie's brews? JAN MOIR
What is it about tea that brings out the worst in people? Not those who drink it. Those who sell it. In Scotland, the celebrated Wee Tea Plantation Company has turned out to be a massive scam, with cheap tea imported from abroad then passed off as tea lovingly grown in a field in Perthshire, and sold off at 100 times the cost to grand hotels such as Gleneagles, the Balmoral in Edinburgh and the Dorchester in London. Ten years ago there was a launch in New York attended by then First Minister and actor Alan Cumming.
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Matcha mania is real — and Japan's running out of leaves
LOS ANGELES, June 26 — At a minimalist Los Angeles matcha bar, powdered Japanese tea is prepared with precision, despite a global shortage driven by the bright green drink's social media stardom. Of the 25 types of matcha on the menu at Kettl Tea, which opened on Hollywood Boulevard this year, all but four were out of stock, the shop's founder Zach Mangan told AFP. 'One of the things we struggle with is telling customers that, unfortunately, we don't have' what they want, he said. With its deep grassy aroma, intense colour and pick-me-up effects, the popularity of matcha 'has grown just exponentially over the last decade, but much more so in the last two to three years,' the 40-year-old explained. It is now 'a cultural touchpoint in the Western world' — found everywhere from ice-cream flavour boards to Starbucks. This has caused matcha's market to nearly double over a year, Mangan said. 'No matter what we try, there's just not more to buy.' Thousands of miles (kilometres) away in Sayama, northwest of Tokyo, Masahiro Okutomi — the 15th generation to run his family's tea business — is overwhelmed by demand. This picture taken on June 4, 2025 shows bags of tea in a tea processing factory in Sayama. — AFP pic 'I had to put on our website that we are not accepting any more matcha orders,' he said. Producing the powder is an intensive process: the leaves, called 'tencha,' are shaded for several weeks before harvest, to concentrate the taste and nutrients. They are then carefully deveined by hand, dried and finely ground in a machine. 'Long-term endeavour' 'It takes years of training' to make matcha properly, Okutomi said. 'It's a long-term endeavour requiring equipment, labour and investment.' 'I'm glad the world is taking an interest in our matcha... but in the short term, it's almost a threat — we just can't keep up,' he said. The matcha boom has been fuelled by online influencers like Andie Ella, who has more than 600,000 subscribers on YouTube and started her own brand of matcha products. At the pastel-pink pop-up shop she opened in Tokyo's hip Harajuku district, dozens of fans were excitedly waiting to take a photo with the 23-year-old Frenchwoman or buy her cans of strawberry or white chocolate flavoured matcha. 'Matcha is visually very appealing,' Ella told AFP. To date, her matcha brand, produced in Japan's rural Mie region, has sold 133,000 cans. Launched in November 2023, it now has eight employees. 'Demand has not stopped growing,' she said. In 2024, matcha accounted for over half of the 8,798 tonnes of green tea exported from Japan, according to agriculture ministry data — twice as much as a decade ago. Masahiro Okutomi working at his farm in Sayama city of Saitama Prefecture. — AFP pic Tokyo tea shop Jugetsudo, in the touristy former fish market area of Tsukiji, is trying to control its stock levels given the escalating demand. 'We don't strictly impose purchase limits, but we sometimes refuse to sell large quantities to customers suspected of reselling,' said store manager Shigehito Nishikida. 'In the past two or three years, the craze has intensified: customers now want to make matcha themselves, like they see on social media,' he added. Tariff threat Anita Jordan, a 49-year-old Australian tourist in Japan, said her 'kids are obsessed with matcha.' 'They sent me on a mission to find the best one,' she laughed. The word matcha means ground tea in Japanese, and comes in the form of a vivid green powder that is whisked with hot water and can be added to milk to make a matcha latte. — AFP pic The global matcha market is estimated to be worth billions of dollars, but it could be hit by US President Donald Trump's tariffs on Japanese products — currently 10 per cent, with a hike to 24 per cent in the cards. Shortages and tariffs mean 'we do have to raise prices. We don't take it lightly,' said Mangan at Kettl Tea, though it hasn't dampened demand so far. 'Customers are saying: 'I want matcha, before it runs out'.' At Kettl Tea, matcha can be mixed with milk in a latte or enjoyed straight, hand-whisked with hot water in a ceramic bowl to better appreciate its subtle taste. It's not a cheap treat: the latter option costs at least US$10 (RM42.25) per glass, while 20 grams (0.7 ounces) of powder to make the drink at home is priced between US$25 and US$150. Japan's government is encouraging tea producers to farm on a larger scale to reduce costs. But that risks sacrificing quality, and 'in small rural areas, it's almost impossible,' grower Okutomi said. The number of tea plantations in Japan has fallen to a quarter of what it was 20 years ago, as farmers age and find it difficult to secure successors, he added. 'Training a new generation takes time... It can't be improvised,' Okutomi said. — AFP
