Because of the uncertainty as to the length of time tea may be allowed to steep in hotel kitchens or restaurants, it is a wise custom to have a ball of tea and a pot of hot water served that the guest may make the tea at the table.
Tea is diuretic, stimulating the action of the kidneys. Through its stimulant action it relieves fatigue and has been found especially useful in Arctic explorations and for soldiers on long marches.
When taken hot it will often relieve sick headache. When taken on an empty stomach, after a long fatiguing tramp or a prolonged “shopping” excursion, its refreshing effect may be felt for an hour or two.
The ease of its preparation and the quickness of its effect tends to produce the “tea habit.” When drunk to excess with meals, it causes the precipitation of the ferments in the digestive juices, retards digestion, and may cause constipation, particularly if taken after long infusion.
Strong tea has an overstimulating effect on the nervous system which reacts, producing depression and restlessness; this may lead to insomnia, muscular twitchings, and palpitation of the heart.
Habitual users often take from ten to twenty cups of strong tea daily; in these the evil effects of the tea habit are easily noted.
Americans, or any people whose nerves are highly stimulated, from the stress of life, or from habitual nerve tension, should particularly avoid all stimulating beverages.
Poor tea, because of the greater amount of tannin it contains, produces its ill effects more quickly. From overstimulation of the nervous system, poor tea, long stewed, has been held to be a contributing factor in insanity.
Tea should be avoided by the dyspeptic, by those of constipated and flatulent habit, or by the anemic.
Tannin coagulates the albumin in milk or cream and the addition of these to tea renders it more indigestible; plain or with lemon juice it may be well borne by those with whom it disagrees when used with cream or sugar.