Composition Of Tea Recipe ingredients

To prepare this Composition Of Tea Recipe, first a cup of tea, outside of the cream and sugar often taken with it, possesses no nutritive qualities. It is a stimulant and has a mildly exhilarating effect. The desirable elements in tea are the stimulating principle, theine, and the essential oil, which gives fragrance. An undesirable element in tea is tannin, a bitter astringent substance. Tannin in the stomach interferes with digestion by hardening the proteid substances in the food; it also toughens and hardens the lining of the stomach. The problem is to make tea so as to secure the desirable qualities and avoid the tannin. This is really a very simple thing to do. The essential oil and theine are readily and quickly dissolved from the tea leaves upon the application of boiling water. Simmering water makes a weak, insipid infusion of tea. After the water has stood on the leaves five minutes, the presence of the astringent tannin is apparent, and if the water with the leaves be boiled rather than steeped, tannin is extracted in quantity. Tea, made by pouring water over the "spent" tea leaves that have been left standing in a teapot from a previous meal, is a slow but sure poison.