Excerpts from a Toastmasters speech I gave several years ago, on the benefits of green tea.

Camellia sinensis. Sounds like a terrifying disease, or an obscure type of cheese.

Actually, it is the species of shrub used to produce green tea.

I don’t know how many of you think about green tea on a regular basis, but I certainly do. And I would to inform you all on this magnificent plant, and perhaps even inspire you all to give it a try sometime if it is not a regular feature of your daily life.

It all started back in my childhood. My mother began placing large containers of green tea in the fridge. No extra sweeteners or additions, just simply tea.

I started to become dependent.

After a long day of school, an intense workout, a humid summers day, I would always look forward to coming home and enjoying a long sip of this tea. It was always a refreshing and soothing constant throughout my adolescence.

Soon my friends used to want to come to my house, not to hang out with me, but to drink the infamous green tea.

Now, this infamous green tea has a particularly interesting history of its own.

The legend is that in a land and time rather far away, the emperor of China in the year 2737 BC, discovered green tea while he was drinking rather hot water and some leaves miraculously landed in it from a nearby Camellia sinensis shrub. This emperor, a rather bold and daring man, decided to take a sip of this concoction. He was quite pleased with this new found flavor.

Little did this emperor know, but he started an entire way of life in China. It later became used as an herbal medicine, as well as a spiritual mechanism. In fact, the Chinese philosopher Laozi, thought that green tea was “the froth of liquid jade” and that it was the key to living an eternal and healthy life.

Around 800 AD green was introduced to Japan by a Buddhist monk traveling from China. Buddhists used the tea as a way to stay focused during meditation. Green tea became a symbol and means of spiritual rejuvenation signifying harmony with the universe.

Drinking green tea has also been proven to have a positive impact on nearly every system in our bodies. It helps our digestive system and balances our intestines and stomach.

It is rare in our modern society to consume something so simple, without the need of any chemicals or substances that take away from its natural being.

There is a great lesson that we can learn from its simplicity. We don’t always need things to be sweet, adding in extra syrups and sugars that are prevalent in so many of the drinks that we regularly consume.

Simple, elegant, natural, beneficial – lets spread the movement, and enjoy some more green tea in our lives.