Intro 0:03
Welcome to Maximal Being, a podcast devoted to ditching fad diets and using real science to get you healthy and feeling great. I’m Doc Mok, a GI and functional medicine doctor who harnesses the power of gut health to get you achieving your goals. And I'm Jacky P, a well informed layman who challenges the experts and ask the questions that you want. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button or leave a comment, and now onto the show.
Doc Mok 0:32
What's going on Maximal Beings, Doc Mok here with maximalbeing.com. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button. Leave us a comment, it does help us to get the word out. If you have any questions, you can email us at [email protected]. Enjoy the episode.
Jacky Homme 0:47
Tse, let's back up a little bit because you explained the different teas, right? Because you said it was black tea, green tea,
Jenny Tse 0:55
White tea
Jacky Homme 0:56
White tea
Jenny Tse 0:57
Pu-erh tea and oolong tea. Five categories.
Jacky Homme 1:00
But then you said there is a plant. The plant you were just saying. So explain, so that plant is different, is it tea itself. Is that the main tea for green tea?
Jenny Tse 1:15
So the Camellia sinensis plant
Jacky Homme 1:17
Camellia sinensis, yes.
Jenny Tse 1:20
Yeah, makes those five categories of teas. They're all from the same plants.
Jacky Homme 1:26
Oh, okay. I mean, I'm gonna have to throw a laycard here. So how? So? You know, so what is it? Is it parts of the plant? Is it the timing when you pick it? Is that what delineates what type of tea it is that comes from that plant?
Jenny Tse 1:46
So the those are categories and those have to do with the range of oxidation, of whites is the least oxidized, it is picked and air dried. Green might be bruised a little bit, kind of like an apple, like roll an apple on a counter, and then you cut it open like the next day, it's like bruised. And then oolongs are in between a green and a black tea, a little bit more oxidized, it has the largest range, it could be almost as light as a green tea or almost black looking like a black tea. And black tea is not technically fully oxidized. They used to say that in books, like old books about tea, but it's just mostly oxidized, you know, like your banana that's been sitting in your lunch sack for a couple days you know became neglected and so it's really brown. And then pu-erh tea is the only tea that's actually fermented, where they actually like, moisten it, and kind of like have it in like a warm room and encourage microbes to grow in it. And then you have that as in helping people with like, even like probiotics, because you kind of have these probiotics living in it. And then right before they store it, they're gonna dry it because like, you don't really want your produce, you know, like, if you had some spinach, you don't want to sit it out forever, it's gonna get moldy, right? So all of these teas, those five categories of tea have to do with how long they've been oxidized, the process of making it and then you can get into the seasonality of the stock of the plant, like is the top picking, a lower leaf, all that stuff changes the flavor, changes the potency of the caffeine, changes you know, and then the tellars so you get into this whole like crazy world of tea kind of like the wine industry.
Jacky Homme 3:31
Yeah, I was gonna say it's like the wine, you know, as as a novice in tea as I am in wine, I remember going to wine tasting they're saying there's hints of this and notes of that I thought it was stuff they're actually putting in the in the wine but it wasn't, it's just how it tastes. So okay, so is so 90% or 100% of the tea we drink is made from that one plant? Or there are other types of like plants that we make tea out of?
Jenny Tse 4:02
So traditionally the word tea is any beverage that is made from the Camellia sinensis plants. So white, green, oolong, black, and pu-erh those five categories. Now we have westernized it and anything we put hot water in is now a tea, right? Hibiscus Tea, or peppermint tea like I remember when I was so, my my family my mom's side of the family were into Chinese medicine like my mom's mom was like the local Chinese medicine woman in their village where she grew up. And so my mom, I remember when I started getting into tea, she's like, I don't understand why these people call it peppermint tea. It's not tea, it's medicine, because for her, she does not have a good memory I think of peppermint, like you might love love it Jacky, but her she's like something terrible medicine my mom gave me as a kid , you know. And so now everything that is seems to be steeped in hot water or extracted with water seems to be called a tea. However, coffee is still extracted in hot water and we don't call that tea you know? So that's why we call it like everything else a tisane in herbal infusion, and it gets really complex because now you're growing into like herbal medicine where I specialize in the Camellia sinensis plant, the tea plants and not herbal medicine, if that makes sense.
Jacky Homme 5:30
No, that makes plenty of sense. I'm gonna stop calling it tea unless it's on comes in your black, green, white, the easy ones, oolong.
Jenny Tse 5:44
Pu-erh
Jacky Homme 5:46
Purah. Purah? Pu-erh
Jenny Tse 5:48
Pu-erh tea
Jacky Homme 5:49
Wow, my, my lay, my little laybrain is hurting right now.
Doc Mok 5:53
My brain is hurting too. I did not know that either.
Jacky Homme 5:56
I you know, like a very typical basic Westerner. I thought like, oh, if it's hawoti I didn't know that all the tea came from one leaf. The people need to know.
Doc Mok 6:07
I hope somebody listening out there is drinking tea and just spit it out, like cartoon style. Because they were so inspired and amazed like
Jacky Homme 6:15
That is, that is incredible. I didn't know what to say, I'm speechless. But looking at the time here, we do have to pause for a quick tea break, hello, and we'll be back in just a second.
Doc Mok 6:29
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Jacky Homme 9:02
All right everyone, we're back. We've got Jenny the the the tea queen in the building, just schooling us on tea facts. We're here with Doc Mok. Doc Mok learned something today. And I'm just you know, I'm impressed when Doc Mok learn something because he is the smartest person I know. So, alright, Jenny. So you know, we sent you some questions. I might have some additional questions because you know, they are prompted, but let's let's start with the basic three and we'll mix it up. What do you think?
Jenny Tse 9:36
Yeah, let's do it
Jacky Homme 9:37
You ready? All right, cool. So first, and we talked about this a little bit, and it doesn't have to be a health textbook. What is your favorite health book and why?
Jenny Tse 9:48
So one of my resources that I love reading about it's this book by an Alaskan author, and it's Wild Plants. Yeah, just plants, it's called wild plants. It's got like one of the my big reference books discovering wild plants. And it's mostly about the different wild plants, from trees, to shrubs, to just different things of flowers, all kinds of plants in Alaska. And what they do, like some contraindications, like what they you know, not do, like this is toxic don't use this plants. So it's kind of like one of the first tea plants or not tea, it's not tea. Tisane, right?
Jacky Homme 10:36
Yeah.
Jenny Tse 10:37
So of like foraging and using your natural resources and how like, different people have used them for different ailments, or different uses of it like fiddlehead, you could use it for like cooking with or things like that. So that's one of my favorite books that I like to refer to, especially because I live in this amazing gigantic state that has a lot of diversity in plants, and even just the climates and what has grown were in the state, that it's just a nice resource to be like, what what's around me that I can utilize?
Jacky Homme 11:09
Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if we what was the name of the book again?
Jenny Tse 11:19
Discovering wild plants
Jacky Homme 11:21
Discovering wild plants. Doc Mok, how does that check? You know about that one, right.
Doc Mok 11:25
No, no, no.
Jacky Homme 11:27
Another trophy for Jenny.
Doc Mok 11:29
Yeah, no, Jenny's got this. I mean, she's doing it.
Jacky Homme 11:33
Wow. Yeah. So okay, well, that's it. We do keep a record of the books. And I want to say, correct me if I'm wrong Doc Mok but I think this is only the second time someone has mentioned a book that you haven't read, I think.
Doc Mok 11:48
I think so, I think so, and it's been more recent, so I guess I need to read more or something.
Jacky Homme 11:53
Yeah. That's amazing. I love it. Jenny, you're on a roll. Go Jenny. Okay. Second question, what is your favorite exercise?
Jenny Tse 12:06
So I mentioned before, I grew up in athletics, and my favorite exercise of all time, but I don't get to do it that much, that often anymore, is jump rope. Because I actually grew up on a jump rope team. Like, I've been to Nationals twice. That's why I've been to Florida actually quite a few times, because that's where Nationals is. I've always placed in top 10. And actually, that's also the reason why I went to college in Idaho, because they had the number one team in the country. So, but yeah, I can jump rope on my butt. I can
Jacky Homme 12:38
What?!
Jenny Tse 12:38
do double dutch. I can do all those like triple under crossings. That's what I used to be able to do. But I mean, my, I live in the woods so I don't have like a nice pad or like get like a driveway. There's a lot of rocks, so it's not so good for me to jump rope in my dirt driveway, because I'll probably chip a car or somethiing like that. But that is definitely my favorite exercise. And it's just so good for you. You're got plyometrics, great cardio.
Doc Mok 13:14
Yeah
Jenny Tse 13:14
You can, it's so easy to do almost anywhere, low budget, a rope, tennis shoes. I mean, I guess you don't technically need tennis shoes. And we started doing that when we were kids, my sister and I did because the other big sport in Alaska is hockey. And that's very expensive. So from our family's standpoint, they're like, you just need tennis shoes and a rope? Yeah, sure. Go, go have it.
Jacky Homme 13:40
That's incredible. Jenny, you are like an onion. So many layers as we talk. There's so many different facets, you're jump roper, you're tea infuser. What's next on you? I feel like the universe is gonna pull you to something else. We don't even know we don't even know yet.
Doc Mok 13:57
Polar bear wrestler.
Jacky Homme 13:58
Polar bear wrestler. All right. And
Doc Mok 14:04
I would also argue you do need tennis shoes for jump rope because ouch. I mean, I have done it, does not work out so well when you mess up so.
Jacky Homme 14:13
I, yeah, I would say I jump rope with a weighted jump rope and it yeah, my big toe.
Jenny Tse 14:20
That hurt
Jacky Homme 14:20
is not happy
Doc Mok 14:21
For us lay jump ropers wear the tennis shoes, disclaimer.
Jacky Homme 14:28
So what is your, the strangest diet that you've heard of or been on?
Jenny Tse 14:36
So I don't diet and this is why, it's because of the craziest diet the only diet I've ever been on was like when I was a kid like in the 90s there was like the whole celery diet thing right? And I was super fit, like I remember in the girls' locker room, I don't know, my senior year of high school or something like that. And the girls were talking about a six pack and I'm thinking like a six pack of soda? Six pack of beer. What are they talking about? They're like no your abs and I was like, I have the six pack. Like I had a six pack my senior year of high school. I mean, because jump rope, right? Crazy amounts of jump rope. So I was like, oh, and then I heard that if you diet, like, you know, you'll be more slim or something like that. And my body type is fast twitch, right? I bulk up. I'm more like a gymnast. You know, people when I had a three foot vertical jump, like from jump rope, people are just scared of me because like, my calves are like, chiseled so I always like
Jacky Homme 15:40
Doc Mok understands. Doc Mok has absurd watermelon calf muscles.
Jenny Tse 15:48
So yeah, you can't even fit into your snowboarding boots that well, because your ankles it's just calves. So, um, and so I was like, oh well. And then there was some girls who want to lose weight or whatever that means, you know, and I have weight because it's muscle mass, right? And I was like, I wonder, I wonder what would happen if all I ate was celery. So I put myself on a celery diet. And I was probably the most unhealthy thing I could ever do. Because at the time, I was eating either a loaf of bread a day, because back then it was like carb loading. So I would eat either a loaf of bread a day or a box of cereal a day, like I ate so much, but I was burning through a lot of calories. So all sudden you take that to celery, like, what is that, you know, and so like my gut felt all like messed up, I think I actually became allergic to raw celery like my tongue would tingle, and stuff like that. And I just killed my metabolism. So ever since then I was like, I'm just going to eat whatever my body's telling me, be in tune with what that is. And I don't crave things like ice cream, or some things that people would like cookies, or like, I just don't naturally crave those things. And also because I'm lactose intolerant, and you know, really sugary things kind of make my stomach upset. But ever since then I was like, oh, I'm just gonna listen to what my body wants in a healthy way, within reason, you know, I'm not gonna eat a big bag of fries or something like that. And I would go through these waves of like, I guess now you call it intermittent fasting, you know, but for me, it was just like I'd eat a bunch then I just felt like I didn't want to eat that much. And then I'd eat a bunch and and then I would just feel out what I've, you know, was interested in. But that crazy diet of the celery diet. No one should I ever, ever go back to that. I hope it's never a fad.
Doc Mok 17:47
Almost as bad as the hot dog diet. Yeah. Almost as bad as that.
Jacky Homme 17:50
Almost as bad yeah. I can't even imagine the crash in energy you must have had cause celery is. Speaking of tea being mostly water, celery is basically water, so.
Doc Mok 18:01
And also like environmental impact, celery is so hard to grow. It's like because it's all water. You're just like dumping water into it so yeah,
Jenny Tse 18:09
Water and fiber.
Doc Mok 18:11
Water and fiber.
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Jacky Homme 20:04
All right, and then another question which, of course, I mean, I hope there's an answer. What is your favorite tea?
Jenny Tse 20:13
Oh, my favorite tea is the Ti Kuan Yin Oolong. It's also sometimes called Iron mercy goddess oolong tea. It's called different things because it's a Chinese word. And so there's an English it's spelled like nine different ways, but it's an oolong tea, and oolongs actually have five subcategories. Oolongs are the largest category of tea. And it's the middle subcategory. So it's literally plain tea like in the whole spectrum of our five different categories, the middle category, and then the middle of the middle. But it turns out, that was probably the first tea I ever drank. So while I was learning about tea, and I was recalling my grandfather doing this Chinese tea ceremony every morning, and then grandma and grandpa do that weird Chinese thing in the living room, which ended up being Tai Shi because we're the weird Asian family in the neighborhood. Um, I would steal his drink. Like just like I used to steal my dad's coffee. And that's how I became a coffee drinker. I would steal whatever the weird thing was in the clay pot that my grandpa had left on the table before he went for a walk. And so when my father was like, that's the tea that your grandfather drank every day. I was like, really? Crazy. And so it's my first tea experience, probably and it is my favorite tea and it's super budget friendly. Okay, going back to the reason why I started drinking tea because it's so inexpensive. That oolong the Ti Kuan Yin Oolong, you can resteep up to six to eight times, if it's a high quality one, I can drink it for like three days straight, the same tea leaves.
Jacky Homme 21:55
Ah, that, you know, that has brought me to another question which I didn't plan about the resteeping. So my father in law, he he, he loves tea. And it's, I mean, I'm gonna see if it's actual tea but I think it's tea because now that we know that, you know, it's you know, just everything is not tea. But he saves his tea bags. You know, we get him a tea for his birthday. It's like all this very nice fancy teas. And he would like resteep the same tea bag. And like, dude, there's like 20 tea bags in here. Like, we can get you more, but I always just thought that whenever you like, I've never tried to resteep a tea bag. But what is is it just the type of tea you can steep? Is it like the brand? Is it like what? What makes it resteep-able if that's even the right word?
Jenny Tse 22:43
Yeah, no, that is a great question. Because every time we have customers come into our store, we're always saying don't forget to resteep your tea up to four times, you know, because they just don't know. Because if you buy like a $30 can of tea from us, you would like why in the world is this $30, it is so expensive, like well, actually, it makes up to 160 cups, so and it's because of the resteeping. So if it's a higher quality tea, the tea leaf, like just imagine like a leaf on a tree, they pull it up super, super tight, usually by machine. And that tightness, even if you put boiling hot water in it, and it sat in boiling hot water for like three minutes, it barely opens. So the higher quality tea it is the tighter rolls it is, which means the more times you can resteep it, which also means it's fresher longer. So when you think about, say going back to sustainability, right thousands of years ago, they did not have plastic, resealable bags, they didn't have vacuum sealing, what they had to do was put it in their sack, a box, or however they're going to transport it. And we know essential oils are extremely important for not just flavor, but for nutritional benefits in our food. So tea would be transported all the way across the world in these crates or sacks or whatever they were. But the tighter rolled they were, the better their essential oils were self quote unquote vacuum sealed for transport. So they weren't stale. So higher quality teas are tighter rolled, and you can definitely resteep them.
Jacky Homme 24:23
Okay, that's good to know. And can you, so I know there's a temperature, there's a whole temperature piece of this right and you know, there's you know, so can you ruin tea? Is it possible to ruin tea for too high of a temperature or too long at a high temperature? Is that like a multi faceted question, or?
Jenny Tse 24:49
That's a very controversial question. So I'm gonna rock the boat here and say no, you can't ruin a tea. Because all the tea connoisseurs out there will be like what. There's a perfect I mean, come on, one of the top tea infusions competition at the World Tea Expo, I know how to make a perfect cup of tea.
Doc Mok 25:10
Yeah
Jenny Tse 25:11
But if you're a newbie, it's your cup of tea, you drink it however you want. And if you, okay, so just like coffee, tea has temperature, and it has to do with the extraction rate, the extraction rate of getting the essence out of that plant material, whether it's coffee, whether it's tea, time and temperature have to do with the extraction of its essence. And so if you make it too hot, or too long, and it's really strong, and really bitter, and really, and it say it was a high quality tea to begin with, because you've got low quality teas that just don't taste good no matter what. That you can just water it down. I'm just telling you just put more water in it and there'll be less concentrated. Yes, I mean, if you're going to be in a tea competition, you could ruin a cup of tea. But I mean, it's your cup of tea and really time and temperature just changes the extraction rates. And so can you technically ruin a cup of tea? I personally don't think so cause you can just fix it.
Jacky Homme 26:20
Sure.
Doc Mok 26:21
Well, proof of concept, Jenny in the podcast world, we are starting to steep a little bit too long, but the extraction rate has been very high. So
Jacky Homme 26:31
Another pun, hello
Doc Mok 26:35
Jenny, where can people find you if they're looking for your wonderful product?
Jenny Tse 26:38
Yeah, they can look us up at sippingstreams.com. We also have a YouTube channel so youtube.com/@sippingstreams lots of great tea education information there
Doc Mok 26:50
Awesome, thank you so much for your wisdom. For all of you out there that have not done so already, go ahead hit the subscribe button, leave us a comment, it does help us to get the word out. If you have a question for Jenny or any of our wonderful guests or Jacky P email us at [email protected]. I'm going to promote our kombucha course because that marries well with tea, fermented teas, right, so go ahead and find that at maximalbeing.com. Jenny, thank you so much. I learned a tremendous amount. I'm a bitter tea sort of guy. So I steep a while. But but thank you for sharing this wisdom with our patients. It certainly does help especially, you know, my patient population is always looking for new and innovative things to boost their wellness. Jacky P any any parting words of wisdom or,
Jacky Homme 27:40
You know, listen to the universe. You know, it took Jenny so long to get into what she was apparently born to do stealing tea as you know from her grandfather. So listen to the universe, folks. It tells you where you're supposed to go.
Doc Mok 27:53
As always, I'm Doc Mok and I'm here with Jacky P and Jenny at Sipping Dtreams Tea Company and we're here to maximize your health. The content included is not intended to be used as medical advice and viewers should consult their physician or health care provider should they have additional questions. The viewers should not rely on information contained in these presentation for immediate or urgent medical needs. Additionally, if you think you have a medical emergency, call your physician or go to the emergency department or call 911 immediately. Never disregard professional medical advice or rely on seeking medical care or delay medical care due to information contained in this presentation. What's going on Maximal Beings, Doc Mok here. If you haven't done so already, leave us a comment and hit the subscribe button. Let your friends and family know that way we can get the word out and continue to bash the bro science.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
