We often get asked how we create our tea blends and decide which fruits and berries to add to each blend. The thing is, drinking tea has been proven beneficial for a variety of health issues, including cancer-prevention, aiding in fat loss, prevention of dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and helping the brain to focus. At Fully Loaded Tea, we recognize why people consume so much tea these days and we boost the health benefits of tea by adding fruits and berries that have extra health benefits.

Let’s take a look at some of our blends:

Goji Force Green Tea - a whole leaf green tea with goji berries and lingonberries. Green tea is a proven contributor to overall health. Goji berries are full of antioxidants, vitamins and essential amino acids. Lingonberries are high in vitamin C. This blend is considered to be our “Super Green Tea Blend” It also tastes great - you can drink it everyday for breakfast and not get tired of the flavor!

What’s the big deal with goji berries? Goji berries contain many nutrients and phytochemicals including: 11 essential and 22 trace dietary minerals, 18 amino acids, 6 essential vitamins, 8 polysaccharides and 6 monosaccharides, 5 unsaturated fatty acids, including the essential fatty acids, linoleic acid and alpha-linoleic acid.

Most importanly, unlike other tea companies, who use powdered goji berries in their tea blends - Fully Loaded Tea uses whole dried goji berries, cut in half in all of our blends! This means less processing of the berries and more nutritional benefits for you!

Naked Strawberry Green Tea - whole leaf green tea with strawberries and rose petals. Another great green tea for obtaining the overall health benefits of green tea. Strawberries are famous as a rich surce of phenols. In the strawberry, these phenols are led by the anthocyanins (especially anthocyanin 2) and by the ellagitannins. The anthocyanins in strawberry not only provide its flush red color, they also serve as potent antioxidants that have repeatedly been shown to help protect cell structures in the body and to prevent oxygen damage in all of the body’s organ systems. Strawberries’ unique phenol content makes them a heart-protective fruit, an anti-cancer fruit, and an anti-inflammatory fruit, all rolled into one.

Shameless Berries Fruit Tea - goji berries, blueberries and seabuckthorn. This is quite possibly the best “herbal tea” money can buy! Three of the most antioxidant rich berries known to man are combined for this caffeine-free blend. We already mentioned the antioxidant power of goji berries. Recently, researchers at Tufts University analyzed 60 fruits and vegetables for their antioxidant capability. Blueberries came out on top, rating highest in their capacity to destroy free radicals. Seabuckthorn is not well-known in North America yet, but has been used for centuries in Asia and Northern Europe for its anti-inflammatory properties and extremely high vitamin C content (one tiny berry of seabuckthorn, about the size of a raisin, has more vitamin C than a whole orange)

We often get asked about Decaf Tea - especially how it’s made and if it still has all the health benefits of regular tea. Here’s the scoop:

How it’s made

The plant species that tea is made from Camellia sinensis, is part of a group of plant species that contain caffeine naturally. A cup of black tea contains anywhere from 40-50 mg of caffeine, roughly half the caffeine in a cup of coffee. Decaf tea is produced by steaming mature tea leaves and then treating them with either Ethyl Acetate or carbon dioxide. Ethyl Acetate is a naturally occuring chemical compound that is used as a solvent in nail polish removers, in paints as an activator or hardener and industrially to decaffeinate coffee beans and tea leaves. Tea leaves are essentially washed in ethyl acetate, which binds to the caffeine molecules and removes them from the leaves.

The carbon dioxide method involves extracting the aroma and flavor from tea leaves first by treating them with carbon dioxide. The leaves are then treated with more carbon dioxide at a higher pressure to remove caffeine from the tea leaves. After this step, flavor and aroma are added back to the leaves.

As you can see, both of these methods require extensive manipulation of the delicate tea leaves in order to remove the caffeine. The major difference between coffee and tea decaffeination is also that coffee undergoes massive physical and chemical upheaval of roasting, after is decaffeinated but before it is drunk. Tea goes straight from decaffeination to consumer.

Is it still as healthy for me as regular tea?

Most studies done on the health benefits of tea use regular tea that hasn’t been treated for decaffeination. According to a UC Berkeley Wellness Letter from May 2004, no one knows whether decaffeinated tea is as healthful as regular tea.

At Fully Loaded Tea, we believe in drinking either full-caffeine black, green or white tea to ensure you’re getting the full health benefits from your cup of tea, or drinking one of our caffeine-free blends that are made with fruits and berries. We don’t use decaf tea in any of our blends and have no plans to do so in the future. We don’t want our tea to be treated with any chemicals before we drink it!

Our caffeine-free blends include:

Shameless Berries Fruit Tea - goji berries, seabuckthorn, and blueberries for all the health benefits that come from these berries

Bulletproof Currant Fruit Tea - blackcurrants, cranberries, lingonberries and rosehips

Wild Siberian Fruit Tea - rosehips, blackcurrant leaves, summer flowers

That the word for tea is the same in many countries: “cha” or “chai” is what tea is called in China, India, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Green, black, white and oolong teas all come from the same plant - the only way they differ is how the leaves are processed after picking.

Tea is the #2 consumed beverage in the world, after water.

Tea was initially promoted as a medicinal beverage or tonic when it was first imported into Britain in the 1700’s.

The only way to determine quality of tea is to taste it - even if it is a whole leaf tea, it may be a poor quality blend.

Tea has no carbohydrates, fat or protein, but contains over 700 chemicals, many of which contribute to better health and well-being.

In the 18th century, tea smuggling was a big industry in the U.K. because of high taxes on legal tea. Most of the tea consumed in those days was illegally smuggled into the country by gangs and criminals!

Billy Tea - tea made in the bush using a billy can (metal canister) over a fire or camping stove. Billy tea evokes thoughts of outback explorers waking up and making their morning cup before heading out further into the bush. We had a chance to experience billy tea while watching a sunrise over Uluru, which is in the centre of Australia.

Australian-grown tea - there are some tea estates in Australia that grow and process tea. They are located in the north part of Australia in north Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Tea Tree Oil - it comes from a different plant than the tea we drink. The tea we drink comes from Camellia sinensis, while tea tree oil is derived from Camellia oleifera. Traditionally, tea tree was used by the aboriginals for its antiseptic and antifungal properties when applied to wounds, cuts and other skin conditions. Today, tea tree oil is found in many skin care products.

Tea houses in Australia - we were fortunate to visit several tea houses in Australia. They serve tea traditionally with scones, jam and cream. The most memorable was the Lake Barrine Tea House, built in the 1930s that is situated on a volcanic lake about an hour outside of Cairns. Surrounded by ancient rainforest, the tea house is a quaint look at the culture and wildlife of the Atherton Tablelands area. If you are visiting Cairns, we highly suggest to take a tour or rent a car and see the ancient rainforests. We recommend the Wait-A-While Rainforest Tours company, an independent small business that took great care of us and provided a fantastic rainforest tour.

Sunterra Market - West Market Square
1851 Sirocco Drive SW, Calgary, AB T3H 4R5

Sunterra Market - Britannia Marketplace
803-49th Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2S 1G8

Thank you for the write up and we`re really glad you enjoyed our teas!

This marks the second year that we are involved with the Junos - we received the call directly and the organizers said that we were one of the first on their list to call, being a hip Vancouver-based tea company! We’re very proud to support the arts community and to be considered for involvement in high profile events such as the Junos!