On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:11:18 -0400, Paleo Phil <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>[...] though black tea is
>also fermented and neither Cordain nor Ray Audette prohibit black tea. Ray
>does say that green tea is preferable (black tea is just fermented green
>tea).

So many misconceptions, so little time to correct them all.  ;-)

Thanks for helping clear up the cocoa "bean" bit... let me clear this one up
for you.  Black tea is not "fermented".  That term is frequently used, but
it is incorrect.  In reality it is merely oxidized, in a process that could
very easily be paleo.  

Take a fresh green leaf of almost any plant, so long as it is not very
fleshy.  Crumble it up like a piece of paper then smooth it out again, then
leave it sitting out in shady humid spot a day or so.   Pick another fresh
leaf of the same plant, but don't crumble it, leave it as intact as
possible.  Put both the leaves in the hot sun to dry.  After they are both
dry, the one you crumbled will be darker or even black... the other will be
merely a "drier" shade of green.  The reason is that crumbling up the leaf
exposed substances within the leaf to the air, and with a few hours of
exposure enough of these oxidize and turn dark.

This is the difference between green tea and black tea.  If the time the tea
leaves are left out to oxidize is limited to a few hours, the result is in
between: Oolong tea.  This oxidization process chemically changes some of
the substances in the tea, so black and oolong tea may have different or
fewer medicinal properties than green tea (but this has not been studied
very extensively.)

As to whether or not tea (green or black) is paleo in the strict sense, the
correct answer is, we don't know.  Present day hunter gatherers make
medicinal infusions or decoctions of herbs, even if they do not have pottery.

:j