Please forgive the ignorance, but I really do not know anything about Tea. Does Jasmine tea (made with Jasmine blossoms and green tea) contain caffeine?
Am currently doing research, and getting sucked into the world of Tea. I also have a sleep disorder, and am supposed to stay away from caffeine. Therefore, the question.
Any help is appreciated. Very happy to have found this group, and look forward to many happy cups together.
Dave snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
Dave, you have answered your question yourself. Jasmin tea is TEA, i.e. leaves of C. sinensis, so how could it not have caffeine? All tea that is made of C. sinensis leaves have caffeine. Unless it was decaffeinated. If you have sleep disorder stay clear of tea. Try mate (made of Yerba) the alcaloid tyere is not caffeine but mateine, it is said to actually help sleep.
Alex.
keeping in mind, of course, that not everything calling itself 'tea' is of the real tea plant. There are many 'teas' out there that have nothing to do with the tea plant and are therefore naturally caffeine free (aka tisanes)
Decaffeinating the tea yourself may be adequate. Have a look at
While there, have a look around the rest of the document. It's probably the best way to kickstart your research if you haven't done so already.
Cheers,
- Joel
Actually, I'd suggest avoiding yerba mate, too, because (from experience) yerba mate can get you more wired than a piano.
N.
Interesting. My experience and many that of my friends are different. Over time (about a month of a daily usage) mate appears to clam me down and deepen my sleep. As someone who spends much of my time in deep thoughts (mathematical modeling in genetics and immunology) I also noticed that its is easier for me now to "deepen" my thoughts and keep myself in that state for longer. My good friend who does similar things for Oracle told me that he noticed the same effect. However, these effects appear to come in a slow and mild fashion.
Alex.
"Alex Chaihorsky" wrote in news:cpE%c.13079$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com:
It is the same for me, but I have heard otherwise from others. Also, some have written it makes them sick to the stomach. Like so many things, I suppose it varies by individual. Perhaps some people are sensitive to certain compounds or combinations in the plant.
I would suggest anyone try anything new carefully, at first. As someone with a couple of food allergies, I've learned this the hard way.
"Dave" wrote in news:chm0to$ snipped-for-privacy@library1.airnews.net:
You might also like rooibos (not truly "tea", but it makes a nice tisane), which supposedly contains no caffeine. I have enjoyed it with milk as a pleasant before-bedtime drink. In fact, I'm pleased to have remembered it.
Hey Alex, thanks for the reply.
Okay, well, I didn't know what plant the green tea came from. To me, there are a lot of things called "tea," including herbals which I understand have no caffeine. Like I said, I am ignorant but honest. Now I at least know who to ask. :)
I am seeking to become familiar with the Japanese Tea Ceremony, both for my own pleasure and for the ability to write about it with some accuracy. Can you tell me what Macha (Matcha?) is? And how will I know if that is what I am buying? I *think* I saw some at the Chinese grocery the other day, but want to know for certain. I really would like to do this right.
Speaking of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, I have the small kit sold under that name in some bookstores, as well as another called "About Tea" or something like that. The second one contains only a book of meditative thoughts and two ceramic cups. The first contains other paraphernailia for the purpose of actually trying to replicate the ceremony with some feeling of seeing the genuine thing. I am sure it is the abbreviated version, for Americans, but it's a start. Any ideas on where to go next? I hope to someday fly to Florida for the purpose of having tea with the guy who wrote the forward to the copy of The Book Of Tea that came in the first kit. If not there, and him, then somewhere else appropriately genuine. Like I said, I would really like to experience something as close to The Real Thing as I can manage.
Caffeine in the tea. Sigh. Someone else suggested decaffeinating it myself, and I may try that. Will definetly check out the link they posted. In the meantime, I will only have a cup when I am trying to stay awake (like right now.) So very gratifying. Plain and unsweetened, with a slight bitter edge (which makes me think "Like life itself.). I am hooked.
Thanks again.
Dave snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
THANK YOU! This is nice. Much appreciated.
Dave snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
THANK YOU! I will check this out. Should I find it somewhere next to the tea, in my Chinese grocery? Or elsewhere?
Dave snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
Dave,
I am an opponent of the Japanese tea ceremony and prefer Chinese one. It will take me hours to explain why. But believe me - writing about Japanese Tea Ceremony without spending years studying and practicing it is like writing a manual on an extremely old and complex religious practice and even ell-known masters usually do not feel worthy of such writings. Chinese one has no (or almost no) ritualistic side whatsoever. Anyway, if I were you I would read, read, read. Tell us where you live and may be we will be able to direct you to a good teahouse in your area. There you can try what you learn and get some fun out of it too. Yes, it is good that you understand how ignorant you are and its good that you are honest about it. The problem is that you have no idea HOW ignorant you are. Nothing wrong about it, there is so much to know about tea that anyone (including myself, naturally) who does not feel as an ignoramus, just have no idea of the scope of the subject.
The Web is a wonderful tool and you can learn a lot by using Google. That is why I leave your question about Matcha without an answer. It is one thing to answer a quick question for someone who just needs a quick answer, as we already did. If you are seriously interested in tea you have to start digging yourself.
Alex.
you can drink tea in the morning and the afternoon... it won't disturb your sleep...
oh boy... don't start with matcha... it's too difficult for you... find a japanese store where you live (wherever that may be) and ask your questions there... if they are ok they will give you good advice... and most of all they will show you how it's done + + + !! start with some good sencha... master it (or so) and then check out matcha...
if I were you, I would ask this NG for names and places that one can rely on in your area... trust me, if you start in tea this is the best advice you can get ! : )
Matcha: Gotcha. Thanks. And thank you for putting my ignorance in perspective. I really need to write about the Japanese ceremony, as it is the ritualistic side that matters to the story. I am not trying to write a book that covers the complete breadth and depth of the ceremony (if any one book could do that) but just give an idea as to the meaning. It's for a kids book, and the main focus is on how everything has to be a certain way, and any faux pas is absolutely taboo. It's about how ettiquette (sp?) is EVERYTHING. Main idea in the story: a kid who enjoys misbehaving is being taught to behave, and the Japanese Tea Ceremony is his final exam. It's a kid's book, so only the fundamentals of the philosophy behind it all are to be examined.
Thanks again for your input. I probably still have no idea just how ignorant I am, but I am working on it.
PS: Does the tea made and drunk in the JTC have calming effects on the drinker? Seems I read this somewhere, but can't remember where. That would help my story, so if it doesn't, what effects does it have? Is it highly caffeinated? (I hope not.)
Dave snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
PPS: I am in Houston, and would LOVE to find a decent teahouse here. Also, what books would you recommend I read, besides The Book Of Tea? TIA
A Japanese person that needs tea or anything else but self-discipline to control his/her temper or mood is either not Japanese or need a doctor ASAP.
Alex.
Dave,
Imagine someone who is not at all familiar with Christianity is writing a book about a boy who misbehaved and went to church and Christian service on the spot set him straight. Certainly for the purposes of your book you will have to grossly simplify the subject and probably do that without understanding that certain tiny points in Christianity were discussed for centuries and people died for them. Imagine the depth of insults for serious Christians. It is entirely up to you, but I would avoid touching subjects of such depth and ceremonial value for such purposes. Your story suppose to teach children that everything should be done a certain way, and you yourself take a shortcut through may be the most ceremonial thing invented by humans short of Catholic Mess where the whole meaning is that there is no shortcut :)
I am sorry if I sound as a bore and its entirely your business how and what you write (nothing, and certainly no tea ceremony should stay in the way of the First Amendment) but you may want to at least to think of alternatives. Let Japanese be sloppy about their culture and us - about Euro-American. But the opposite create resentment.
Sorry if I was unpolite.
Alex Chaihorsky Reno, Nevada.
Oh, he is definetly NOT Japanese. He is an arrogant Texan (the kind I grew up around.)
Dave snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com
Dave,
Its green tea, so it has plenty of caffeine. The core philosophy (at least on a certain level that I understand, but they are more levels, I know that) is that tea actually play little if any role. It is the ritual that is the core value. In Chinese tea ceremony (gong fu, written the same way as Kong fu, and means "hard work", "work of many steps") the center is tea and there is no ceremony per se - just set of omittable steps to make tea open up its qualities. Our conversation remind me of a very famous Zen fable of how a student asked a Zen teacher if animals are like people and the teacher answered "Mu-uu". The student heard the answer and instantaneously achieved Samadhi (enlightenment). But I am not a Zen teacher and the student in the story was not a Texan :), so I think we are safe for now :)
Alex.
good luck my friend..
sorry... don't know the title in english... I'm french... you'll get plenty of japanese ceremony in this one ! and it would be, for you, a step further into comprehension of the japanese way of tea...
hang in there ! we were all beginners once...
(as said before read + + + !! but be "critique"... a lot of crap has been written on tea so far...)
For a bench mark tea has 50% levels of caffeine compared to coffee. The convention is to throw the first cup of tea which contains 80% of the caffeine which is another bench mark. So the cup is low in caffeine to start and almost gone by the second cup. Another alternative is brew the cup normally and dilute it 10 to 1. A weak cup of tea is what I suggest for beginners regardless of the caffeine. An everyday cuppa for the beginner is often just too much tea. So start weak and develop your taste. When we mention tea here if comes from a certain plant. In general use it means any plant. My local tea shoppe has customers weaning themselves from coffee so it stocks decaffeinated teas and tisanes (herbals). My blend for coffee guests is chocolate tea with sweet(clotted) cream. For coffee drinkers a decaffeinated coffee would be more satisfying than tea.
Jim
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