A cooling hot tea?

Once in Morocco I’ve learned one of the life lessons – to use natural goods for its intended purpose!

That was when in a small moroccain village of Moulay Bousselham local treated me with “Moroccian whiskey” – which indeed was a highly concentrated local mint tea with loads of sugar with zero alcohol!

Moroccan tea is very intense. Nothing in the tea is put in a decent amount. There is huge portion of everything – tea leaves, herbs and especially sugar. Preparation and tea serving in Morocco is a domain of men. It is a ritual, where each step has its meaning.

It turns out that certain foods and beverages, even though consumed at high temperatures, have a cooling effect on our bodies – or seem to do so. This is definitely the case with Mint & Morrocain tea!

Interestingly, organic compound menthol (redolent in the leaves of mint) triggers the same protein sensory receptors in the mouth as does cold temperature while, say, eating ice cream.

When we consume mint, it tricks our body into feeling cold although neither the body nor the mint may be. That’s why hot mint tea cools.

But it’s not only tricks behind! There are scientific researh based reccomendations, that drinking a cup of hot tea in a hot summer day may help to cool you down much better than drinking cold drinks!

For instance, a series of studies conducted by the University of Ottawa found that ingesting a hot drink on a summer day lowers the amount of heat stored by the body, provided that the perspiration produced by the hot beverage can evaporate.

But here I am not inviting you to engage in a a ‘true or fase’ discussion, I am just sharint my great experience of cooling my body with a simple hot mint tea!

Its plus 32 today! Check it out yourself 🙂

Agne