Antioxidants are nutrients found naturally in the body as well as in plants such as fruits & vegetables. Tea contains high quantities of antioxidants, however the better quality the tea and the fresher the leaves the higher concentrations will be.

This is why it is important to drink a good, fresh, whole leaf tea as opposed to the dust in tea bags. It would be wrong to say that ‘tea-bag-tea’ did not contain any goodness, however because of the number of processes it has been through and the fact that it has been ground up, many of the molecules the antioxidants are based on will have been destroyed.

Common antioxidants found in tea include compounds called polyphenols. Included within the broad antioxidant polyphenol class are flavonoids and catechins. The most important dietary sources for flavonoids are fruits, tea and soyabean.