Sunday, March 1, 2009

Which is better for Gorgeous Skin? Wu Long or Wu Yi Tea?

By Caitlin Ryan

Maybe you have been searching for the fountain of youth to restore your gorgeous looks and prevent any further damage from aging. Actually, the Chinese have known about a potential fountain for centuries. Oolong tea has some wonderful age-fighting abilities, and a few lovely mugs a day may help you maintain your youth or undo the damage already done!

Among oolong teas, wu long and wu yi have both become highly popular teas for weight loss as well as fighting aging. They are both incredibly healthy teas, but why is one touted over the other? Let us explore the world of tea for a moment.

All tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis, but the time that the leaves are picked and then the way in which the tea is fermented determines the tea variety. Black tea, green tea, white tea and oolong tea are the four main varieties of tea.

White tea and green tea are unfermented and considered highly nutritious, yet they have a bit of a bitter, grassy flavor. White tealeaves are picked prior to the opening of the bud making it a bit milder. Black tea is fermented for a long time and thus, it is not as nutritious as green tea; however, the flavor is more agreeable to our Western palates.

Oolong tea, on the other hand, is both pleasant tasting and highly nutritious. This is because they are fermented for a short time. There are two main varietals of oolong tea: wu long and wu yi. The wu long tealeaves are picked during the first growth cycle of the tea plant, which is then allowed to go through several more growth cycles.

Tea salespeople would have you believe that this makes a huge impact on the flavor and quality of the tea, but wu yi and wu long tea are similarly flavored AND they both are capable of promoting youthful, healthy looking, radiant skin! The main difference? Price! Wu long is more expensive.

In a way, choosing between wu yi and wu long tea is like choosing between a $20 bottle of red wine and a $50 bottle. Will the $50 be so good that it is worth the extra $30? Probably not. Personally, I would rather save the money by buying wu yi tea because the taste differences are not that remarkable. At the same time, you are not likely to find wu yi tea next to the cheap, econo-sized teas at the market. These could be compared to the $5 bottles of Shiraz.

Both wu yi and wu long teas contain the highly effective antioxidants capable of helping you maintain youthful skin! This is because of their ability to fight free radicals and the damage they incur on your skin and overall health. In regard to your skin, these antioxidants can stave off wrinkles and improve the tone of your skin because they fight the free radicals that cause wrinkled, sagging, fragile skin.

Wu yi tea is also important for the regeneration of skin cells. Enjoying a mug of wu yi tea can calm your body. - 16004

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