Recently Westerners have begun switching to green tea as they become health conscious. The finely ground leaves in SOTA Instant Japanese Green Tea mix into the drink, and therefore you get all the benefits. These benefits can be very important, ask Dr. Atkins or Dr. Weil. I think the most promising areas of green tea research right now is in treating arthritis. The antioxidant power of the green tea's polyphenols blocks the pathway of the Cox-2 enzyme, which is a major cause of the inflammation and pain of arthritis.
Tea also has a strong antibacterial effect.
Drinking a cup of tea after a meal helps prevent cavities and gum disease because the polyphenols kill the bacteria that cause these diseases. We know from other research that there's a high correlation between gum disease and heart disease. I'm not a fan of these drinks. The antimutagenic properties of soluble instant teas were examined using the bacterial Ames assay. Inhibition of the numbers of revertants induced from a number of known mutagens indicates that aqueous extracts of instant teas have antimutagenic activity and antioxidative properties, and can inhibit nitrosation reactions.