The mountain tea is one of the most adorable and popular herms of the Greek countryside that have consumed for centuries.
Dioskorides calls this tea as “sidiritis”(iron ore) because his contemporaries believed that it was effective against wounds that caused from iron during a battle.
Others believe that this name came up from the sprout of the plant which were sharp like a spear or from its iron content.
The prepared beverage with the name “mountain tea” has a lot of beneficial properties because of the tea’s essential oil, like flavonoids. Furthermore, this beverage is preferred by the Greek, especially at winter months because of its effect on colds and on inflammations of the respiratory system. These properties strengthened with the honey. Beneficial effects of tea due to its anti- flammatory and antioxidant action and it is also stimulant, without caffeine and anti-irritant, because it contains ferrum Fe. As a drink is very delicious, aromatic and it can be consumed cold or hot with sugar or honey.
The classic type of tea has no common with the mountain tea. It is about leaves of the plant Camelia sinensis which includes caffeine and high content of polyphenols that’s why is more tart than mountain tea.
Mountain tea is a herbaceous plant with up to 30cm high with thin, round branches and fluffy leaves. Its flowers are usually pink or purple or yellow and are inflorescences. The different varieties of mountain tea are found in mountainous rocky areas and all of them have a special aromatic smell.
In Greece 17 kinds of this plant springs up and they have the name “Greek tea” or names from local towns, for example Olympus tea, Parnassos tea or Crete tea.
Lastly, one of the most recent research from German scientists, headed by J. Pahnke, a professor at the university of Magdeburg, showed that mountain tea and especially Olympus tea, affects the reabsorption of brain substances, with which information is received from one brain cell to the other. After that, he proceed to an interesting research on mice about Alzheimer.
