When looking to make your tea more palatable, you'll probably reach for the honey or sugar.
But can we add honey to green tea ? And if we can, what are some of the benefits of doing so ?
Let's see if we can, and how to add it as well.
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So can you add honey to green tea ?
Yes, you can add honey to green tea.
It will boost many of the green tea's medicinal properties, and give the brew a much more pleasant taste.
However you must add honey to green tea in a very specific way, in order to keep its health-improving properties.
First, let's see the benefits of adding honey to green tea.
Benefits of adding honey to green tea
Your green tea is healthy enough as it is, in the first place. Adding honey to it is only going to enhance those properties. Let's see what happens when you add honey to green tea.
Never add honey to hot tea ! It will lose all its properties. More on that later. For now, remember that these benefits are only true if you add raw honey to lukewarm tea.
1. Your green tea will be easier to drink, honey will reduce the bitterness
Since green tea has such a harsh taste sometimes, adding honey is going to make it much friendlier.
This means you'll be able to enjoy more cups of green tea on average, which is going to have a good impact on your overall health.
Bitterness is a thing many people struggle with when trying to drink green tea.
Green tea is naturally astringent, and will even feel odd on your tongue and teeth if you brew it too strong.
Adding honey to the brew will not overpower the flavor of green tea, but only round it off where it needs a little help.
2. Honey's own antioxidants will boost the green tea's properties
According to Healthline, honey is a great source of antioxidants.
These are also found in green tea, and this means you're upping your intake of free radical fighting good guys.
Free radicals are the prime cause of cancerous cells, and consuming regular amount of green tea may help prevent it.
Since honey contains its own round of antioxidants, you're only making yourself stronger by adding it to your daily green tea.
3. Honey has antibacterial, antiseptic, and anti inflammatory properties as well
Yet another nice thing about honey is that it's also antibacterial, thus it will help clean out the unwanted bacteria in the body.
We all have our resident germs, but they can sometimes get out of control. Honey helps with that.
Another thing about honey is that it's good for reducing inflammation.
This means that if you have a sore throat, drinking green tea mixed with honey is going to help soothe the redness and soreness. It won't go away completely, but it will subside a bit.
It's also got antiseptic properties, which means that you're boosting your immune system when ingesting raw honey.
This means your body will have a harder time getting infections, which is always better than trying to treat infections.
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4. You're adding much-needed vitamins and minerals to your daily intake
When you look at honey and sugar, both are carbs. They are both sweet, and have a high calories count.
The difference is that sugar is in most cases heavily processed, and contains no trace of its fibers and vitamins or minerals, that it would normally have in its natural, cane state.
Honey on the other hand does contain all of those above, with the exception of fibers.
So when you add honey to your green tea, you're adding a lot of the minerals and vitamins you're missing out on by using simple sugar.
Even raw sugar is missing some of those components, so honey is a better alternative.
Do keep in mind that honey is sweeter than sugar, so you might need to add less honey than you normally would sugar.
How to add honey to green tea
Alright, we know how good honey is when we mix it into our green tea. But how do we add it ?
Most people would just assume that you add it to hot tea, give ti a quick mix, and that's it.
Well, the problem is that honey is very heat sensitive. It needs to sit at a certain temperature, otherwise it will either lose its properties, or crystallize.
Crystallization happens when the honey is kept at below 50 F/10 C for a long period of time. There's nothing wrong with the honey, it still retains all of its properties.
It's just the way honey reacts to the cold.
But with heat, honey can't really handle hot drinks. Or even baking or cooking with it.
Next time you hear someone telling you to add honey to a boiling pot, or a pot that's going to kept at above 40 C/104 F, tell them to go home.
Honey loses pretty much all of its properties when subjected to high heat. It loses flavor, it loses antibacterial properties, and in some cases it even turns toxic (if ingested in large amounts).
Better safe than sorry, so make sure than when you do add your honey to green tea, the tea is lukewarm. If you can comfortably hold the teacup in your hand, then it's safe to add honey.
This means you're missing out on hot green tea, but you can always have it cold as well.
Final thoughts
I hope I helped you out, and you now know both the benefits of adding honey to green tea, and how to add it so you won't lose those benefits.
I love to add honey to my bedtime tea, which happens to he a herbal one. Even so, it's a great combination and honey is always welcome.
If you want to know more about coffee or tea, feel free to check the related articles below. Who knows what else you might find ?
