Every serious tea drinker knows that the right tea set can make you happy. There’s nothing quite like pouring tea from matching tea pot into tea cup and sharing it with your close friends. It’s like having a work of art on your table – one that isn’t just fun to look at it, but is also functional

But did you know that drinking tea can also be a way of giving your health and spirits a boost? It’s true. When you help yourself to a cup of tea, you are doing yourself a real favor in terms of health.

How exactly do you access these health benefits? Are there any limitations?

For starters, be sure that you aren’t relying on tea all by itself to keep you healthy. In order to maximize your tea drinking, you should have a good overall healthy plan in place – one that includes a good diet and lots of exercise. Always talk to your doctor – about tea and about anything related to your health.

Not all teas are created equal. At their best, tea contains antioxidants which can help fight free radicals which some studies indicated contribute to cancer. So yes, tea can increase the odds of staving off some forms of cancer. It can also enhance the health of your heart by lowering cholesterol levels.

But the level of antioxidants in tea is contingent on how much processing the tea leaves undergo after they are harvested. Green tea and white tea are the least processed, and so some studies indicate that their health benefits are a bit higher.

Herbal teas are not technically teas at all – rather than coming from the Camellia Sinensis plant, they are actually herbal infusions. And while those herbs can have their own health benefits, they do not share the overall healthy qualities of tea.

You can also make your tea healthier by avoiding certain additives – heavy cream, for example, or even sugar. Try sweetening with honey or maple syrup, and give soy milk a try.

Remember that you don’t want to turn your tea drinking experience into the equivalent of taking medicine. That’s not why you collect tea sets and it’s not why you host tea parties. Rather, try and achieve a balance between health and pleasure.

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