Tea enthusiasts - Page 24

On December 29 2012 12:53 CursOr wrote:


Tastes SOOO good. Great smell. No caffeine. When a round of antibiotics didn't cure my bronchitis (which I don't usually do- but I had an interview)... I started this tea about a week ago. World of difference. I literally think it saved my life. Echinacea and Astragalus together are the best immune-system herbs out there. Fantastic.

Especially this time of year, this stuff is fantastic. Don't do more than 2 weeks on any Echinacea regimen though- it can cause nose bleeds and other various nastyness.

On December 29 2012 13:03 RuiBarbO wrote:
So I just tried this rosebud tea, and man is it good. Very subtle, so subtle that we actually had to prepare it stronger than what the instructions called for, but it's a smooth, almost sweet taste, and very calming. And when I inhale through my nose after drinking I detect the faintest scent of roses... Really a nice experience.

On December 29 2012 13:04 FragKrag wrote:


In China the prices of any famous tea (tieguanyin, maojian, longjing, etc) range over multiple orders of magnitude. I saw some for around 80 yuan/half kilo and up to upwards of 800 yuan/half kilo.. and I was at a random supermarket, not even a tea shop.

On December 29 2012 12:45 Arceus wrote:
anyone knows if de-caffeined tea tastes any different? I've always had the impressions of it being bad just like how diet coke is terrible

On December 30 2012 09:33 Steel wrote:


Depends, it's difficult to say based on the quality of the tea you buy. Nothing wrong with buying Lipton's green tea, but it is rather cheap and a decaf version will taste different but not worse. If you usually enjoy loose leaf tea, well I doubt you will enjoy a decaf version as much. I can't say I drink a lot of decaf tea however, mainly because the times I did try it I was rather disappointed. The decaffeination process will affect the taste (more of less again depending on the base quality and the delicacy of the process), and different doesn't mean bad. Some teas I enjoy much better cooked than not, so I'm sure that if you look enough you'll find something that works for you.

That being said, I'm curious on the nature of your question. The quantity of caffeine in tea differs heavily from the type, but it will always be much less than coffee. The rule of thumb is that a cup of black & red tea have the highest quantity of caffeine; about half the coffee cup. This is a bad rule of thumb, and don't even try to classify caffeine content based on type.

In front of me I have a list of teas that have been tested. In the top 10 we have a matcha, then a Darjeeling Black tea, 2 chinese greens, a taiwan oolong, two greens, a white, and finally two Pu-erh. The bottom 10 is made up of whites, greens, aged oolongs, darjeeling black teas...

The point is that if you want to avoid caffeine as much as possible for whatever reason, but want to enjoy a cup of tea nonetheless, pick your teas cafefully. Caffeine content is already rather low in tea and you'll develop tolerence really fast. You can also do a very quick (30s-50s) first steep and discard it. Second steep will have reduced tea content, I hear 20%-50% the first steep amount.

Hope that helps.

On December 30 2012 09:43 peacenl wrote:

Hopefully you guys have a better experience with caffeine tolerance. Drinking 6 greens a day is definitely something I feel, it's not bad but a little unnerving to feel the caffeine effects for a few hours. Drinking 4 matcha a day is no problem though, don't feel anything in my stomach, just a very relaxed mental state (basically the opposite). However, a while ago when I had one simple English blend tea during a family visit I got 2 hours of a slight stomach ache. I honestly can not phantom how and why some tea's work like they do. Nowadays, I almost exclusively resort to drinking matcha, it's just one I'm most comfortable with drinking one after another, while with Chinese and Japanese greens (besides matcha) I had the tendency to mix in a few caffeine free teas such as rooibos to stay comfortable.

On December 30 2012 09:40 FragKrag wrote:


Tea is huge in China obviously! There are towns in the south who have become ridiculously rich just from selling high quality teas. When you're looking at the high quality teas, you're paying for the human labor and also the tea itself. High quality green/white teas only use the youngest buds on the plant and everything is done by hand (drying, sifting, etc). Also, generally the tea you buy in a tea shop in China will be much better quality than what you can get in some tea shop in the US (especially with green tea)

That said, some teas are ridiculously expensive

On January 01 2013 14:41 TotalBalanceSC2 wrote:
I bought some of that Chinese white tea stuff for 30.00 dollars for a few ounces. It tasted like soapy dish water to me. Sticking to my earl grey with milk and sugar from now on.

On January 12 2013 04:30 tili wrote:
I thought people should see some studies on tea's effect on the brain.

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/dietary-brain-wave-alteration/
"A neurological basis for humanity’s love affair with Camellia sinensis?"

Actual studies are cited, this isn't a random kook

On January 12 2013 05:17 peacenl wrote:

Somewhat funny that this was only recently found by scientific study, while Japanese Zen monks already started meditating on Matcha about 9 centuries ago

It's good that it's confirmed by scientific data now, but I feel sometimes that too much deep understanding is 'forgotten' throughout the ages.