Health benefits of Twining's Green Tea

There are many positive effects of Green Tea to the well-being and health of people. The specific health benefits of Twining's green tea are listed below:

Hydration

Twining's tea helps to maintain fluid levels. 1.5 litres of fluid should be consumed per day. Tea is an ideal fluid replacement, and is best enjoyed in small amounts and often.

Caffeine

The average caffeine content of tea is around 50 mg per cup. However, at Twining's, their herbal and fruit flavoured infusions do not contain any caffeine.

Low calorie

Few calories are contained in their infusions. The calories that are present are due to the naturally occurring sugars that are found in the fruit pieces that are used for their blends.

Low carbohydrates

Twining's infusions are low in carbohydrates, with less than 1g of carbohydrate per serving. This varies from one infusion to another.

No GM or gluten ingredients

Twining's teas, herbal infusions and flavoured fruit infusions do not include any GM and Gluten ingredients. No genetically modified raw materials or ingredients from genetically raw materials are included.

Antioxidants

Flavonoids, which are known for their antioxidant properties are included in tea. Some of these antioxidants, such as epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate, are suggested to have more powerful antioxidant properties than Vitamin A and C

Range of Twining's Green teas (Twining's, 2014).

Youtube link: Green Tea health benefits and taste

Case Study - Supporting Children's Health in Yunnan

Twining's sources most of their tea, especially green tea, from China. As such, the company wants to support the rural communities from which their tea farmers reside.

Twining's has been working with Save the Children on a health project in Cangyuan, Yunnan, in order to support families and address the high child mortality rates in that area. This region is mountainous, and is the ideal location for growing quality tea. However, due to its terrain and remoteness, it is difficult for the people living there to have access to health services, leading to an increased prevalence of diarrhoea and pneumonia. This results in the high child mortality rate that is experienced, even though these diseases are preventable and treatable.

The partnership aims to strengthen the health care system for women and children, to improve the quality of care provided, to increase tea communities' knowledge on childhood illnesses, and to expand the availability of health care services.
Twining's has been able to accomplish the following so far:

• The launching a new standardized referral system, supported by the local government. This is to ensure that children under five in Cangyuan County are referred to health facilities for treatment.
• Workshops on Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses have been carried out. These workshops include studying theory, hands-on clinical practice in a hospital, and assessment to help trainees apply these new approaches when diagnosing children in the community.
• They have enabled Community Health Promoters to actively promote key maternal and child health messages in their communities. This includes information on the benefits of breastfeeding, the prevention of pneumonia, hand-washing and immunization. 
• Thousands of booklets have been distributed to raise awareness, and to help parents and caregivers recognize symptoms and treat pneumonia and diarrhoea, as well as to give simple tips on counting a baby's breathing rate to identify pneumonia, and how to make rehydration salts at home for treating dehydration.

Health care outreach programmes (Twining's, 2014)

The project has been proven to be a success, and is of great importance amongst the tea communities. It will thus be extended to 2017 in order to bring the benefits of improved child health to an additional 21 villages.

Ethical Tea and Environmental Committments

Ethical Tea

Ethical tea (Twining's, 2014)

Twining's are adamant about producing tea whilst being confident of the welfare of the people who worked to picked it. So what commitments have Twining's made to ensuring the well-being of the workers on tea plantations?

In order to create their wide range of blends, tea is sourced from more than 500 estates in the world, since preference is giving to sourcing tea directly from tea estates rather than through intermediaries. Tea has been sourced for over 300 years, and many long term relationships have been built on trust and respect.
Twining's works with producers to ensure that people working on tea estates are treated fairly. As such, their buyers are trained on ethical trade issues, and they work with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), which improves tea workers' welfare and the environment in which they live.

ETP logo (Twining's, 2014)

They are a founder and active member of the ETP, which was established in 1997. The ETP monitors social and environmental conditions on tea estates in all major tea producing regions. In addition to this monitoring, the ETP partners with a range of organizations in order to implement projects that are aimed at tackling key sustainability issues. These include improving labour relations and reducing discrimination, the safe management of agrochemicals, and adaptation to climate change. Twining's are committed to only buying tea from estates that participate in the ETP programme.

In addition, they buy certified Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance teas. As such, all of their teas are sourced ethically. Twining's is also involved in the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) Tea Improvement Programme, which consists of the largest tea companies in Europe, and important certifiers and NGOs, who work together in the hopes of the worldwide sustainable production and consumption of tea.

Environmental Committments

Twining's is continually committed to protecting the environment, and ensure that their impact on the planet is reduced as much as possible. As such, environmental risks of their operations are done routinely, with improvement programmes being put into place. Energy and water consumption is kept to a minimum, and waste production, especially to landfills, is mitigated. In the UK and Switzerland, for example, waste is not disposed to any landfill sites. Improvements are made yearly so as to reduce environmental impacts and improve their environmental performance.

Environmental commitments (Twining's, 2014).

Distribution

Twining's exports their tea around the world, and many distributors can be found.

In Trinidad and Tobago, Twining's is distributed by L.J. Williams Ltd. L.J. Williams is a private holding company that engages in merchandising and distribution, ships agency and ships chandlery, insurance agency and manufacturing in Trinidad and Tobago. The company, with its registered head office located in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was founded in 1925 by Louis Jay Williams, and operated as a Commission Agent and Merchant under the name Louis Jay Williams and Company Limited.
They are the exclusive importer of a variety of products from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Jamaica. Their operations are done in the region through four subsidiaries: L.J Williams Properties Ltd., Movalite Ltd., Naco Caribbean Ltd. and the Home Store Ltd ( The Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance, 2013).

Logo for L.J. Williams

From their storehouses, Twining's green tea products are transported to a range of chain supermarkets, such as Hi-Lo and Pricemart. I encountered their tea at Hi-Lo, for one.

Twining's tea bags (Twining's, 2014)

Manufacturing of Green Tea

Preparation of Tea leaves

In the preparation of black tea, four steps are followed, which are withering, rolling, oxidation and drying.
Green tea, however, is prepared differently, in order to retain flavours and colour.

Withering

The leaves undergo the withering process depending on the type of the green tea that is being produced.

The objective of withering is to reduce the moisture content in the leaf. The plucked leaves are laid out in a trough, where air passes through the leaves, removing moisture. This process can be up to 17 hours, resulting a wilted appearance of leaves. 

Oxidation

The tea leaves are not allowed the opportunity to oxidize, since this would change the colour of the tea leaves. Oxidation is the process of allowing the enzymes in the leaf to react with Oxygen, which results in the leaves turning brown, and hence giving the characteristic colour of black teas. As such, the tea leaves remain green in colour.

Oxidation can be stopped by traditionally heating the leaves in a large wok. Precise skill is needed to ensure that the leaves are constantly being moved, so as to avoid them burning. Heating the leaves hence kills the enzymes, which avoids oxidation. It can also be stopped by steaming the leaves, in which the leaves are passed through a cylinder with high pressure steam blasting through it. The leaves are left for only a couple of seconds, but it is enough to kill the enzymes in the leaves. However, a slightly different overall taste profile is achieved, and the output is referred to as steamed Green Tea.

Rolling

There are two types of rolling involved.

• Orthodox - The leaves are rolled between rollers until they are gently broken
• CTC (Cut, Tear, Cut) - A machine cuts and tears the leaves into smaller pieces.

Drying

After the tea leaves are heated and fired, the dried tea is ready to be sorted into grades before they are packed.

Dried Tea leaves

Varieties of Twining's tea

Blending

Twining's has 300 years experience with blending superb quality teas, an expertise that has been handed down for generations. Nine people are responsible for every type of tea that Twining's produces. This means that worldwide, Twining's tea will taste the same. Ingredients are carefully selected and quality controls are performed at each stage of sourcing and blending so as to ensure that the highest quality of tea is produced. Twining's also controls their recipes and what goes into their tea, by blending herb and fruit ingredients at their factories. The pie chart at the right gives an example of the wide variety of teas that are produced by Twining's.

Where does the tea come from?

The tea bush

Tea comes from the Camellia family of plants, and there are two main species of tea bush; being Camellia sinensis that originated from China, and Camellia assamica that originated from India. Several hybrids have been developed from these two two species in order to be adaptable to differing conditions. The Camellia bush is an evergreen with a small white flower, and grow up to 20 metres if left to grow wild. There are four main types of tea: Black Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea and White Tea, with non-traditional teas such as Herbal and Fruit Flavoured Infusions.

Selection of plants for Twining's tea

Many conditions affect the growth of the Camellia plant, such as climate, altitude and humidity, as well how the crop is cared for, will create great variation in how the tea tastes. Twining's sources its tea from many estates and plantations around the world, and does not own specific tea plantations, meaning that they can choose the best quality of tea leaves for their blends.

Sources of tea for Twining's

• Brazil: Tea is produced at Registro, Sao Paulo. This tea is bright and golden coloured, with a unique, dessicated coconut character. It has excellent blending properties.
• Argentina: Almost all of the teas are grown in the North-East of the country. These teas have neutral flavours, and are well suited to iced teas.
• Malawi: Tea seeds were planted here in 1878. Tea growing is now done in the far south around Thyolo and Mulanje in the Shire highlands. A reddish liquor is produced from these teas, and they are adapted for tea bag use.
• South Africa: Tea growing was introduced here in 1850. It is mainly grown in the east of the country, and is suited for tea bag varieties.
• Tanzania: The two main growing areas are in the North and the South. They are characterized by their brightness and colour.
• Kenya: One of the world's biggest producers of black teas. The best teas are found East of the African Rift Valley. Their tea has a good colour and is an excellent blending component.
• India: Another big producer of black teas. There are several varieties in the thousands of tea fields across the country. 
• Sri Lanka: Tea is grown in the southern half of the island. They produce a blend known as Ceylon.
• Taiwan: Specialize in Oolong teas.
• Indonesia: Produce orthodox teas.
• China: They produce the largest variety of teas worldwide. Zhejiang, which is south of Shanghai, is known for their green teas, as well as areas that are further south.
• Japan: They produce a variety of green teas, with the tea growing areas situated in the southern half of Honshu and the smaller islands of Shikoko and Kyushu.

Tea for Twining's Green Tea can therefore be sourced from either China or Japan, but it is not possible to pinpoint an exact location since they buy their tea from such a variety of places.

Tea plantation

History of Twining's Tea

Twining's has been producing tea for more than 300 years. It all began in 1706, when the most popular drinks in England were coffee, gin and ale. Tea was seen as being suspicious, as it had just been imported into England from China, and not much people partook of it.

A certain Thomas Twining, however, believed that tea would one day be a huge phenomenon. He first began selling tea from his premises on The Strand in London, a building which has remained until today. He pledged to sell only the finest qualities and varieties of tea. Soon enough, this exotic drink that was being brewed was in high demand throughout England, even by the greats of Jane Austen and Charles II. Tea became the most popular drink amongst the working classes by the 1750's, despite anger from pub owners and increased tea taxes.

Twining's logo

Some historical moments are listed below:

• 1787: Twining's chose its logo
• 1837: Twining's was made an official Royal Warrant holder by Queen Victoria
• 1956: Tea bags were made by Twining's for the first time
• 1980's: Twining's meets the demand for decaffeinated tea

Today, Twining's has over 100 varieties of tea, which are enjoyed throughout the world. Ten generations of the Twining's family have overseen the development of this business, all the while making efforts to keep Thomas Twining's promise of delivering high quality, tasty tea.

Link to Twining's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/TwiningsTeaUK