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From Legend to Science: the Health Benefits of Tea Throughout the world, tea and coffee rival each other as mankind's most popular brewed beverages. For thousands of years, however, tea has had one great advantage over coffee: it is believed to have a wide range o ....

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.... tea, he discovered its miraculous powers and immediately placed tea on his list of medicinal herbs. John Blofeld, in Chinese Art of Tea, writes that ¡§it can be confidently stated that tea was known in the three kingdoms epoch (AD 222-277).¡¨ More importantly, however, ¡§tea [was] originally drunk for its medicinal properties.¡¨ (Blofeld 4) Evans links the early popularity of tea to Taoist religious practices during the Qin Dynasty (201 ¡V 207 B.C.). ¡§Taoists in particular became obsessed by long life and an Elixir of Life became a Taoist ideal. For Taoists the Elixir of Life was believed to be tea.¡¨ (Evans 20) Almost every writer who ....