This is your ultimate guide to graviola tea. Note that graviola tea is the same as soursop tea and the term is used interchangeably.

This is your ultimate guide to graviola tea. If you have a question about graviola tea, then send us a question and get an answer back via email using the link at the bottom of the page.

Soursop Tea Questions and Answers

Here are our most asked questions about graviola tea (sometimes referred to as soursop leaf tea) and their answers:

1) What is is graviola tea? Is it the same as soursop tea?

Graviola tea – which is the same as soursop tea (soursop is also called graviola), is a preparation of dried soursop tree leaves. Shredded soursop leaves are soaked, or steeped, is hot or boiling water, resulting in a slight greenish beverage that is quite pleasant and soothing to drink.

2) What does graviola tea look like when prepared correctly?

Soursop tea can vary in color from a lime green color to a dark brown. The color will get darker the longer the leaves are steeped in hot water.

3) What does graviola tea taste like?

Graviola tea has a mild herbal flavor that, to some people, tastes like a cross between green tea and vanilla. It is not bitter, but it can get stronger the longer the leaves are steeped.

4) Is graviola tea made of graviola fruit?

No soursop tea is made from shredded or ground dried leaves from the soursop tree. Typically the leaves are plucked from the soursop tree, air dried, and then sold whole or shredded or in some cases, they are ground into coarse powder (like matcha tea). Sometimes it is put into tea bags for convenience.

5) What kinds of graviola tea products are there?

Graviola tea comes in a variety of different products: They include:

• Whole graviola leaf
• Shredded dried graviola leaf
• Graviola leaf (ground) sold in single-serve tea bags.
• Graviola leaf powder.

5) Where can I buy graviola tea?

You can buy soursop tea from most online retailers, in health food and supplement stores, and at Soursopstore.ca (Canada) and SoursopStore.com (USA)

6) Does graviola tea contain caffeine?

There is no caffeine in soursop tea. Read more here.

6) How many calories are in graviola tea?

Soursop tea typically contains zero calories, unless other ingredients or additives are added. Soursop fruit contains 148 calories per cup. Read more here.

7) How do I prepare graviola tea?

You can download a free copy of our soursop tea preparation guide which explains how to prepare soursop tea for cancer patients as well as for people who want to consume it for other uses, including casual consumption.

8) How often should you drink graviola tea?

Experts say a cup each day that contains one to two tea bags (or 2-3 whole soursop leaves)  is ideal for those that want to consume soursop as a health tool. Y

This soursop/graviola tea guide may be useful.

8) Can graviola tea cure cancer?

The medical community reports there is no fully conclusive evidence that soursop can cure cancer.

There is an often-quoted study published by Purdue University that shows it has cytotoxic (cell-killing) effects.

Click to read more about the soursop research findings

Full clinical research (studies on people) on soursop and its anti-cancer effects would have to be conducted to show conclusive proof.

Regardless, people who consume soursop tea and fruit as an anti-cancer remedy have issued testimonials praising the health value of consuming soursop.

Again, these claims would need to be supported by further medical research to be proven true by the medical community.

9) Can graviola tea help fight bacterial infections?

There have been lab studies that soursop extracts have an anti-microbial effect. See one such study here posted in the Journal of Clinical and Scientific Research.  

10) Can Graviola tea be used against viral infections such as herpes?

Graviola (soursop)…”is considered an alternative treatment for herpes, but the supporting evidence is still not complete. A 2012 study showed anti-herpes activity with graviola in the laboratory.

12) Does graviola have anti-inflammatory effects?

MedicalNewsToday.com (MNT) reports that: “According to a 2014 study on rodents, graviola has anti-inflammatory properties that may relieve pain. The study’s researchers supported graviola’s use as a folk remedy for pain and inflammatory conditions.”

MNT also reports: “According to a 1999 study, graviola extract may have antiviral effects against herpes simplex 2 virus (HSV-2). HSV-2 is responsible for most cases of genital herpes outbreaks. In vitro, graviola was toxic to HSV-2 cells. In vitro means outside a living body.”

See more here.

13) Can graviola lower blood pressure and blood sugar 

It is suggested that soursop has blood-sugar reducing and blood-pressure-lowering effects. According to CancerResearchUk.org, “Studies on animals found that graviola (soursop) may lower blood sugar and blood pressure. Talk to your doctor first before taking graviola if you have diabetes or high blood pressure.”

14) What is the active ingredient in graviola tea?

Graviola is rich in antioxidants, which it is believed help keep people healthy. They include tannins, saponins, phytosterols, flavonoids, anthraquinones.

It also contains phytochemicals called annonaceous acetogenins (AGEs), which studies show have cytotoxic properties. This means it can kill cells, including cancer cells in tumors.

15) Does eating graviola fruit or drinking the tea have any side effects?

Over-consumption of large quantities of graviola and long-term use can induce side effects including:

• • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Nerve damage and movement problems
  • Neuropathy that leads to Parkinson-like symptoms, such as tremors or stiff muscles.

15) Can I drink graviola tea sweetened with sugar, honey or other sweetener

Yes, graviola tea can be sweetened with sugar, honey or other sweetener. The fruit is often used as part of desserts and sweetening soursop products can enhance their flavour.

That said, it is recommended by health professionals that those with cancer reduce their sugar consumption. Read more here.

16) Where can I ask a question about graviola not answered here? 

Send an email to [email protected]. We will do our best to answer your questions. This will help us improve this post.

Freeze dried soursop is a rare and usually food product indeed. As more and more people discover the wonderful benefits of soursop fruit and soursop leaves they start wondering what other foods come from the tropical fruit tree. The answer is freeze dried soursop fruit.

So what is freeze dried soursop fruit?

It is the soursop fruit pulp dried using a desiccating process called freeze-drying.  A low-temperature dehydration process is used on food products to remove water – it involves freezing the product, lowering pressure, then removing the ice by sublimation (ice turns into gas). This is in contrast to dehydration using heat to remove water. The freeze dried end product is pieces of soursop pulp that look like popcorn or chips. It is dry, crunchy, and sweet. But yet the freeze-drying process retains 99% of the nutrients compared to the fresh product.

Why do people eat foods made from the soursop tree, including its fruit and leaves?

The most famous compounds found in the tree. It is called acetogenin compounds (AGEs). Acetogenins block nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, which is part of the membrane of cancer cells. Soursop has high concentrations of AGEs, found is in its fruit, stems and leaves.

Soursop fruit also contains many minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and iron. In one cup of the fruit (or about 1/8 of a cup of freeze dried soursop) provides 46.4 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C in one cup of soursop pulp, which is over half the recommended daily amount for adults. For context, women need 75 mg of vitamin C per day, and men need 90 mg.

Advantages of  freeze dried soursop fruit

One of the challenges with soursop fruit is that it only grows in tropical and sub-tropical climates. You might see a soursop tree in Florida in the U.S., but even then it’s rare. The tree is very sensitive to temperature so if it gets cold enough to see frost on the ground then it means that a soursop tree will not thrive in that environment even if the rest of the year temperatures are in the 80s and 90s (25 to  35 C).

So the fruit has to be grown in the tropics. However, that means it is grown in South America, the Caribbean, and equatorial Asia (like Malaysia) and Africa. Soursop is a large fruit and it is heavy with water. It also has a thick green spiny skin. So shipping it in its fresh form can be expensive.

The advantage that freeze dried soursop fruit has is that the water is removed in the freeze drying process. Freeze-drying process and so it is light like a chip and crunchy too. So it is much cheaper to ship.

Where can I buy freeze dried soursop fruit?

You can buy freeze dried soursop fruit from specialty food suppliers like SoursopStore.com in the U.S. and from SoursopStore.ca in Canada.

If you have ever wondered how soursop grows, here’s documentary evidence from a visit our family made to the farm where we have been buying soursop leaves and soursop tea bags for more than three years for our stores at soursopstore.com (USA) and soursopstore.ca (Canada).

You’ll see below that soursop is both a large green fruit and the tree it is grown on. Some people call it graviola. The graviola tree and graviola fruit is the same thing as soursop. Just a different name. Same fruit and same plant.

Here is a gallery of our visit to the farm which is located in south Malaysia in the hills of Johor province. Across the strait is Singapore.

 

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