I drink tea because it tastes good and makes me feel good. Anything more specific is, at best, a reach.
After the health benefits talk, the next biggest topic in American tea talk is all about caffeine. People love caffeine! But they also love cutting back on it, and many coffee drinkers looking to do so opt for tea as their morning brew instead. (As for why these drinks are presented as binary options, where you can only be a Coffee Person or Tea Personthats above my pay grade.)
According to the Mayo Clinic, the average adult can safely consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day before vibrating to a plane of non-corporeal existence. Your typical 8 ounce cup of coffee contains about 96 mg, and a shot of espresso has about 64 mg. Those numbers can vary depending on the brewing method, water temperature, and even the duration of that brew; the roast level doesnt matter, as light and dark roast coffees contain similar amounts of caffeine.
A cup of tea made from the Camellia sinensis plant contains anywhere between 28 and 48 mg of caffeinea half to a third of a cup of coffeeso if youre sensitive to caffeine or just looking to cut back, tea is a nifty alternative. The exact amount of caffeine in a given cup is influenced by all sorts of factors, including the processing methods, size of the leaves, and climate conditions where the tea was grown.
Im not sure where this myth first originated, but to this day, reputable news sources parrot unsubstantiated claims about different types of tea containing more or less caffeine than others. Usually the line is that green tea is less caffeinated than black tea, because its less processed or contains a greater concentration of antioxidants.
While processing style can play a role in caffeine content, all types of teablack, green, white, oolong, and post-fermentedhave been shown, on average, to contain similar amounts of caffeine in lab tests. Sometimes, tea sellers will label a particular tea as containing high, moderate, or low amounts of caffeine. But unless theyve sent that specific batch off to a lab to test it, theyre likely making it up.
There is another stubborn caffeine myth in the tea world: that most caffeine in a tea gets released in the first minute of brewing, so if you steep for 60 seconds, dump your brew, and steep again, you can decaffeinate a tea yourself. In recent years, online publications have started debunking this claim, but it manages to persist in some tea shops and communities as wish fulfillment among drinkers and a sneaky marketing tactic among sellers.
Lab analysis has shown that, just like with coffee, the longer you steep your tea, the more caffeine will be released into your cup. Higher temperature water will draw out more caffeine as well.
Originally posted here:
The Biggest Health Questions About Tea, Answered - Bon Appetit
