THE  moguls of marketing are hard at work promoting the magical properties of the Green Tea like it carried God’s miracle in a bottle or can. As far as I know, it was the Gokongwei’s Robina Food Corporation that started this unprecedented fascination for tea since last year when C2 (for Clear and Clean?)) hit   supermarkets and convenience stores in the country with the force of a blockbuster. 

The “fad” caught on soon enough and Nestle and other bottlers and health drink companies came up with their versions of the great green tea in flavors similar to the C2 line, selling these at cheaper price to gradually chip away at C2’s market lead. The drink madness recalls the storm generated by the Noni Juce some years back when health buffs of all ages and shape would do anything to get a bottle of the juice extracted from some exotic plant that was supposedly the secret for the sickness-free condition of  the natives of a Pacific island or something. 

That “elixir’s” marketing strat levelled off and faded soon enough and many former users now smile when reminded of the folly of it all. 

The “green tea” promotion is following pretty much the same pattern. Sure, everyone knows the Camella sinensis, sometimes called Thea sinensis the original brew of the green tea, does have properties that help relieve (to the less discerning, relief means cure itself) some common health problems. Unlike black or oblong tea, green tea is made from unfermented tea leaves which probably explains its better healing properties.

Take note however that  nothing in tea, to include green tea, ever reduces the risk of heart disease as concluded by the US Food and Drug Administration. FDA recently denied a petition by Ito En Ltd., a Japanese company, seeking to allow tea labels to make the claim that drinking green tea cuts the chances of a person contracting cardio vascular  disease.

No, I am no green tea-basher or a health drink irreverent   chap; I do buy C2 with the passion of a beginning addict but I do it to refresh myself and savor the taste without really wanting to be “cured” of anything. 

In this world, one must know how to recognize hype from hypertension.