As summer dissolves into autumn and temperatures dip, there’s no healthier sip than wellness in a cup. The history of tea dates back to ancient China, with records of tea sipping spanning back as early as the third century, in a medical document scripted by Hua Tuo, a Chinese physician. Many of our early foremothers, with no formal education in medicine, were prolific healers who performed the duties of doctors using curative herbal brews. Had my great-great grandmother Mary Louisa Stepp Burnette Hayden been born in 1958 instead of 1858, her legacy could have very well been that of a physician, pharmacist, or president of her own holistic nutrition company. Her skills as an herbalist and natural healer, combined with her extensive knowledge of common mountain plants of western North Carolina—golden seal, black cohosh, crushed ragweed, ginger, and garlic—enabled her to look after the health of entire families. Plants and plant extracts were used to treat every type of ailment, from indigestion to colds to flu. In later years, Mary Louisa practiced her craft from a small cottage. Barely less than five feet tall, she was known as a “fierce force to reckon with,” clothed in her flowing aproned-dress, waist-length hair protectively twisted into a bun as she boiled leaves, herbs, and ingredients of Mother Nature into tea potions in a cast iron cauldron.
The world’s top tea producing countries include China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Argentina, Japan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malawi, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Myanmar, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Nepal. Rooibos tea, a favorite of mine, is consumed by South Africans around the clock as a breakfast drink, luncheon beverage, or nighttime cocktail. Caffeine-free rooibos tea offers vast health benefits, including anti-inflammatory properties. Another favorite is karkade, a refreshing red tea first introduced to me in Cairo, Egypt in 1993. Karkade boasts many medicinal properties, including regulation of blood pressure and a high C content. Africans have been consuming tea concoctions for ages for remedial benefits. Kenya has become the top tea-exporting nation around the globe for black tea, rich in antioxidants, thought to improve heart and gut health and lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels.
For centuries, antioxidant-rich green tea has been a dominant refreshment throughout Asia and has gained popularity worldwide.
So powerful are the healing properties of tea that tea is the most consumed beverage in the world, second only to water, according to the Tea Association of the USA. 20 | Noire Women’s Wellness
September/October 2022
