Last night I could not sleep and I awoke up bleary eyed this morning like my usual under-performing self. All I had the day before was two cups of white tea from less than 20 leaves- I fell for the common myth that white tea has the least caffeine. A colleague who I've been sharing tea with confirmed this bai mu dan-white peony with about third buds had some extra octane.The myth about white tea having the lowest caffeine content compared with green and black tea probably stems from the Fujian varietal for certain kinds of white tea which purportedly has less caffeine. While absolute generalizations cannot be made, white teas could contain higher concentrations of caffeine for the following reasons according to this ratetea article:
- White tea tends to be largely buds which contains the highest levels of caffeine in the tea plant. Caffeine being the plant's insecticide needs to protect it's most tender parts.
- Minimal processing leaves the caffeine in tact.
So I can devise a series of experiment to prove the new wisdom. I'll bring in different types of white tea (silver needles) and let my colleague rate the caffeine content. Since he's a hardened coffee drinker trying to wean off, I'll know the caffeine content is serious if he feels it.
As for myself, I drank nothing but water tea today at work and will do so for a while. I threw in one lonely pod of cardamom to cheer myself up.
The book http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/gift/tea-history-terroirs-varieties has a very detailed graph about many different teas that they sell and the caffeine content in them. And white tea was not at the bottom of the list. It was towards the top containing higher levels of caffeine that some green and black teas. So who knows. I would stick to the herbals if it is bothering you. If you have to have tea try the very large leaf varietals, maybe they have less.
ReplyDeleteI was scoping out teas on camellia-sinensis.com. They sell a white tea from Malawi! I just wanna try, just one sip...
DeleteThe taiwan oolongs I have tied from them are very good, The cheapest one Si ji chun was my favorite from 2011, The aged sheng I tried was just mediocre. They sent me a sample of Nilgiri Parkside (Noir-Inde) and it was very good even though it was mostly broken leaf. But I havent tried any of there green or whites.
DeleteI love that lonely cardamom pod, but I feel very sad about it.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me sigh Israel but what can I do. I just want to know how long I can keep it up and what it will lead to. I haven't gotten into derivatives trading just yet.
DeleteBuds have more caffeine, on a per gram basis, than larger leaves. They're more concentrated.
ReplyDelete