Almost everyone has heard of the great health benefits of consuming green tea. Believe it or not, a large number of those people do not like the taste of green tea. So one question I get asked a lot is:
What can I do to incorporate green tea into my diet if i do not like the taste of green tea?
Fortunately there are a number of methods to consume green tea without actually tasting the green tea. I will outline two solutions below.
1) Make regular (or black) iced tea at a ratio of five to 1
If you do not like the taste of iced green tea, hopefully you do like black iced tea. Black iced tea is the standard iced tea most people are familiar with. It is a strong flavor, much stronger than green tea.
The strength of the flavor of black iced tea makes it perfect to slip a little green tea into without being able to taste the green tea.
Here is a recipe. In a 3 quart pot, heat water to just before boiling,or bring it to a boil and turn off the heat till it stops boiling. Take five small Lipton black tea bags and one small green tea bag and steep the bags in the water for four minutes. The result is a regular iced tea with green tea benefits without the taste.
Black tea has health benefits as well, so your drink will be an overall healthy one. If so inclined, the next time you make iced tea with this method, use two bags of green tea and see if the taste offends you. Keep experimenting till you find the right ratio of black to green tea while striving to use as many green tea bags in your iced green tea hybrid.
2) Eat green tea
Yes you can eat green tea. I recommend finding a source of food quality powdered green tea. You can check out EatGreenTea.com for quality food grade edible green tea.
Once you have a source of organic edible green tea, go nuts. You can add it to a lot of things that will mask the flavor of the green tea.
Examples include: tomato sauce, smoothies, soups (creamy ones mask the taste better), mashed potatoes, cereal, oatmeal, and yogurt.
These are just examples, the possibilities are endless. If you are worried about the green tea flavoring the food think about this. One teaspoon of edible powdered green tea has as many health benefits as 30 cups of green tea. So a couple dashes probably equals a couple cups of brewed tea. the point is you do not need to eat a lot of green tea leaves to get the benefits, and by not having to add too much to your food you have less of a chance of effecting the flavor of almost any food.
If you are planning to eat green tea, do yourself a favor, and look for an organic edible green tea. Eating pesticides or fertilizer may offset the health benefits of green tea.
