I am interested in oolong tea for weight loss purposes and health benefits- my question is once I brew the tea, can I also reap the health benefits in ice tea form or does it loose its potency? Also which oolong tea would you recommend typically for weight loss and antioxidant benefit?

The health benefits of any type of tea increase with the quality of the tea. Using the tea as iced tea does not lessen the health benefits in any way.

If you are primarily interested in the health benefits of wu long tea you might want to try GABA tea. This is not an wu long tea but has been specially processed to increase the GABA levels in the tea. GABA is an amino acid that has many health benefits including weight loss.

You can find info at this website

http://www.allgabatea.com

I tend to think this oolong weight loss stuff is overblown. It started with an endorsement from Oprah didn't it? I've seen a few studies that say wu long can increase _meta_bolism - maybe it can be used in a diet plan...

I think you're right about Oprah being behind this current fad for wu long, but the studies I've seen have indicated that it has weight-loss properties. There's a couple of Japanese studies in particular that indicate that regular wu long tea consumption will keep off the extra pounds.

hi, i'm a new member to the forum and this thread inspired me to look into the science of tea. here's an article i found to be quite interesting, it has some interesting insights into the questions stated.

http://www.ffnmag.com/NH/ASP/strArticleID/624/strSite/FFNSite/articleDisplay.asp

Hi shapeshifter and welcome to the forum. Thanks for the interest _link_. Most of us are aware of the scientific studies about tea and are convinced of the health benefits of tea. It's frustrating to see the FDA prohibit any health claims on packaging, but hopefully the recent Canadian decision which recognizes the health benefits of tea may be the first step to FDA recognition.