So asking the replicator for “Tea, Earl Grey, Hot” does a body better than “Water, Bottled, Cold”? This according to a story on the BBC News website: “Tea ‘healthier’ drink than water”:

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.

The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates.

Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found.

Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health.

Some very interesting tidbits in there, though the fact that the research was funded by the Tea Council casts a bit of doubt on the whole thing. Still, better than a six pack of soda every day.

Green tea (Simplified Chinese: 绿茶; Traditional Chinese: 綠茶; Pinyin: lǜ chá) is a “true” tea (i.e. Camellia sinensis) that has undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green tea is popular in China , Japan and Taiwan and has recently become more popular in the West, which traditionally drinks black tea (a “true” tea made from leaves more heavily oxidized than the white, green, and oolong varieties)….

Matcha (Japanese: 抹茶), occasionally spelled maccha, is a fine, powdered green tea used in Japanese tea ceremony and to dye and flavour foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream and a variety of wagashi (Japanese confectionery)….

Matcha is regarded as a “heavy” green tea, but can be drunk as a strong (koicha) or weak tea (usucha) depending on the way it is prepared.

Matcha is generally expensive compared to other forms of tea, although its price depends on its quality. It can be hard to find outside Japan, as can the implements traditionally used to prepare and consume it….

Since wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic system, it is difficult to explain precisely in western terms. According to Leonard Koren, wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it “occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West.”…