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Business & Tech

Crowd Gathers for Tea Seminar

Tea has a long history of purported health benefits, and enough different varieties and flavors to fit into almost anyone's diet.

The Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Union County, based in Westfield, hosted one its largest crowds ever last Thursday for a seminar on tea.

The tea seminar, “Drink to Your Health,” presented at the county clerk's Westfield office, allowed for a discussion on the various aspects of tea. The lecture follows a lecture earlier last month on the health benefits of chocolate. The tea seminar was conducted college lecture-hall style by Karen Ensle, a Rutgers professor.

Ensle spoke to the audience about the history, health benefits, and preparation of four different types of tea: green, white, black and oolong. Each audience member was given a bottle of water and a flavored ice tea packet to mix with it. The lecture was attended by around 40 people, including men and women of all ages, plus a few children.

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Drinking up to three glasses of tea per day has been shown to contribute to cardiovascular health, may improve conditions such as diabetes and obesity, and may also help strengthen our immune systems.

“One of the things we want to see people achieve is a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle, and tea can definitely be part of that goal,” Ensle said.

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Ensle highlighted several statistics, including the fact that 98 percent of the tea sold in the United States is black tea, and that 80 percent of the tea Americans consume is served chilled, as iced tea.

Ensle ended the seminar by giving audience members a list of resources to find out more information about tea, including the Tea Association of the USA. Take-home material from the presentation included three handouts: a tea brewing temperature guide, a few pages about tea and antioxidant properties, and some material about tea and caffeine.

The Rutgers Cooperative Extension is an outreach branch of Rutgers University; instead of teaching in classrooms, this program brings educational content that can be applied to everyday lives out into the community. In addition to health and nutrition seminars, The Rutgers Cooperative Extension facilitates local agriculture and farming events, works with charities in the community, and cooperates with local 4-H chapters.

“We’re not out to make money,” Ensle said of the Cooperative Extension program. “I’m not telling you any of this to sell you tea or herbs. We want to be seen as a resource for you. Whatever we do is very inexpensive, and we try to offer as much as we can for free. Everything we do has an educational base,” she said.

 

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