Is there any conclusive experimental data to prove that herbal tea is really better than hot tea?

At present, there is little research on the health care function of herbal tea in China, but there is research abroad.

The report was published in the journal Food Composition and Analysis. Italian researchers compared the levels of polyphenols, catechins and antioxidant activities in tea soup under cold and hot soaking conditions. In previous studies, the researchers found that the antioxidant activity of white tea under cold water brewing conditions was higher than that of black tea, green tea and oolong tea. In order to further understand the release differences of different kinds and grades of white tea under cold and hot brewing conditions, this experiment was carried out.

Five kinds of China white tea and three kinds of African white tea were selected as control experiments. Tea leaves are soaked in hot water at 90 degrees Celsius for 7 minutes and in cold water at 20-25 degrees Celsius for 2 hours. By comparison, the researchers found that although different grades and types of white tea showed higher or lower levels of antioxidant activity, catechins and tea polyphenols when brewed in room temperature water, on the whole, tea soaked at room temperature was better than tea soaked in hot water.

The researchers believe that making tea with room temperature water for a long time is beneficial to the complete expansion of tea leaves and the full migration of beneficial substances in tea leaves into tea soup, while room temperature water has no destructive effect on the cell structure of tea leaves, and also ensures the integrity of effective components in tea leaves, thus obtaining tea leaves with richer tea polyphenols content. However, experiments also show that the results of herbal tea brewing may be different from people's expectations in terms of caffeine release. Caffeine in herbal tea is higher than that in hot tea, especially Bailongjing tea made in China. In addition, it is mentioned in the conclusion of this experiment that the color of hot tea soup is lighter and the aroma is milder than that of Leng Cha.