Me and green tea, wow!!

Non-oxidized tea
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Webley
Posts: 48
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 7:37 pm
Location: Baltimore, USA

Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:23 pm

Been trying Chinese and Japanese green tea exclusively lately. Wow!!
For the past 2 weeks I’ve been brewing these teas according to the vendor’s recommendations. I’d say I‘ve tried at least 6 in each category.
The difference in taste and effect are remarkable to me. For most of my adult life, I’d say at least for 50 years, I’ve been a coffee drinker 90% of the time. I ventured into the tea world gradually with an open mind mainly to explore and experience some of its nuances. I can say honestly it has been a welcomed experience.
I’ve always had a slight caffeine sensitivity. Nothing too serious but I can tell when I’m going to get “buzzed”. With coffee it was like a Mack truck hit me. It really slammed me. Depending on how strong it was, I would really feel it’s effects. It gave me a good dose of the jitters. When I went to decaf, that let up quite a bit. I had withdrawal for about a week. I’ve been drinking tea exclusively for about 3 months now.
Back to green tea. When I drink the greens, I can feel a slight “rush” not “buzz” come over me. It is euphoric. That’s the only word I can use to describe it. I have no nervousness or chest tightness with tea. It’s like a gentle mist comes over me for a while and then it subsides gradually. I get a mild headache sometimes but I think I can contribute that to maybe brewing it too strong or drinking it too fast.
I hope I didn’t bore anyone with my ravings. I’m just so glad I got involved in this wonderful world even if it came later in life. Do you think the headaches will disappear later?
Noonie
Posts: 360
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:30 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:01 pm

Webley wrote:
Tue Apr 14, 2020 3:23 pm
Been trying Chinese and Japanese green tea exclusively lately. Wow!!
For the past 2 weeks I’ve been brewing these teas according to the vendor’s recommendations. I’d say I‘ve tried at least 6 in each category.
The difference in taste and effect are remarkable to me. For most of my adult life, I’d say at least for 50 years, I’ve been a coffee drinker 90% of the time. I ventured into the tea world gradually with an open mind mainly to explore and experience some of its nuances. I can say honestly it has been a welcomed experience.
I’ve always had a slight caffeine sensitivity. Nothing too serious but I can tell when I’m going to get “buzzed”. With coffee it was like a Mack truck hit me. It really slammed me. Depending on how strong it was, I would really feel it’s effects. It gave me a good dose of the jitters. When I went to decaf, that let up quite a bit. I had withdrawal for about a week. I’ve been drinking tea exclusively for about 3 months now.
Back to green tea. When I drink the greens, I can feel a slight “rush” not “buzz” come over me. It is euphoric. That’s the only word I can use to describe it. I have no nervousness or chest tightness with tea. It’s like a gentle mist comes over me for a while and then it subsides gradually. I get a mild headache sometimes but I think I can contribute that to maybe brewing it too strong or drinking it too fast.
I hope I didn’t bore anyone with my ravings. I’m just so glad I got involved in this wonderful world even if it came later in life. Do you think the headaches will disappear later?
Hi @Webley - pleasure reading your 'ravings', all good ;)

I drank coffee from my teens to early 30's then converted to tea. I'm not too sensitive to caffeine. I agree that green tea (in particular) is a nice, slow injection of caffeine that has a smooth start to finish - no mack truck for me neither.

So which green teas have you tried and from where? From Japan I love Sencha, like Gyokuro and have played with the others...through to Hojicha, which is a great late day/night tea as it has very little if any caffeine. For China greens, I've tried many and really only like Long Jing. When it comes to green I mainly like Sencha (drink it daily).

Have you tried other teas? If not, you have years of pleasure ahead of you. Maybe visit Yunnan Sourcing's site and get some samples of Raw Pu'erh (aka Sheng), Ripe Pu'erh (aka Shou); and for oolongs - Dan Cong, Wuyi, High Mountain and Dong Ding (latter two from Taiwan). Just a few ideas for you, many more out there.

Enjoy the journey. Oh, and teaware is a whole other rabbit whole (you've been warned :mrgreen: )
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Webley
Posts: 48
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 7:37 pm
Location: Baltimore, USA

Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:27 pm

Thanks for the encouragement Noonie. I’ve tried everything you mentioned. I particularly like the Oolongs and Puerhs. I’ve been steeping them in French presses then refrigerating them lately. They are refreshing and don’t seem to have much caffeine.
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Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Wed Apr 15, 2020 12:09 am

@Webley Please continue with your ravings, quite refreshing! About your headaches, is it more like a dizziness? Could be that you had some tea on an empty stomach. Especially the greener ones or black tea can be unforgiving. Some might have to do with quality, lower quality tea can provoke more of these issues than higher quality.
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Webley
Posts: 48
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 7:37 pm
Location: Baltimore, USA

Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:28 am

Thanks Bok. Just finished 12 ozs of plantation tea from South Carolina, USA. Probably not the best. A lot of twigs in it. I sipped it pretty slowly. Had it with breakfast. No headache. I’m hoping for the best.
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