I am drinking green tea, not bad. However, how much is the right amount? Using one tea bag (Lipton) until it runs out? I am off coffee and diet cola in part because of caffeine, and green tea does have caffeine. Where is the even ground between not drinking any, drinking the right amount for health, and perhaps dat loss, and going overboard and being overstimulated all day long?
They do sell decaf green tea you know?
I’ve seen recommendations to drink 3-5 cups per day. I often drink that amount. I like the feeling I get – alert but not stimulated, and calm. Kinda like Power Drive. I believe green tea has L-theanine which is supposed to be calming. No jitters at all.
I would be extremely surprised if you could get overstimulated from ANY amount of green tea, especially if you have drunk a lot of coffee in the past. Green tea has maybe 10% of the caffeine of coffee; you won’t even notice it.
You’re not using the SAME tea bag over and over, are you?
And, I’m curious, why are you trying to eliminate caffeine? I want to be healthy, and constantly see the recommendation to eliminate caffeine – but no one gives any good reasons other than the standard dehydration thing. And I’m not worried about dehydration.
There was a good discussion about this a week ago. Since I drink a lot of green tea, it inspired me to do some poking around. I wrote up what I found into a news blurb for News and Reader Mail. Here’s a sneak peak below (and thanks to whoever provided to links in that last tea discussion):
Green Tea: Stick to Caffeinated
Many of us drink green tea for its numerous health and fat loss benefits, but according to Dr. Andrew Weil (you know, that hairy alternative medicine dude) some types of decaffeinated tea don’t have the same antioxidant benefits.
If you’re going to drink green tea for health benefits and want to go decaf, make sure the brand you use is decaffeinated with the natural process called “effervescence” which retains 95 percent of the polyphenols (i.e. da good shit).
The other method of decaffeinating uses the solvent ethyl acetate and basically removes 70 percent of the antioxidants along with the caffeine. Whoops.
As a side note, you can decaffeinate your own tea by steeping the bag for 45 seconds then pouring off the water. This gets rid of about 80 percent of the caffeine. After you pour off the water, steep again for the usual one or two minutes. Weakens the flavor a bit, but not much.
As an aside, the recent research aound the benefits of green tea (reduction of prostate cancer risk) have focused on “dosages” of around 6 cups per day (a quantity deemed a human achieveable dose). Green tea is also shown to have a whole host of other health benefits. As I mentioned last week, the issue is not the decaffination, but the use of ethyl acetate in decaffination. This results in the loss of polyphenols (70%), which are the source of many of the health benefits. Navin, I use a similar technique to lower the overall caffeine, much like the repeat steeping process, and experince little impact on flavor. If your interested in getting the benefits without any caffeine, you might contact the manuafacturer to learn what proces they use in decaffination (ethyl acetate or effervescence). Good luck.
old dogg
has anyone experienced some sort of mood enhancement from green tea? for the past two days I have had about three cups of the stuff starting in the morning and oddly enough I feel “up” and not so mopey all day long. I never felt this way when drinking coffee or even regular tea.
whenever i drink 3 or more cups of green tea throughout the day, I’m in a pretty good mood and never get too tired. Nice and steady mood and energy levels. just curious, what brand of green tea do you guys drink? i drink some Chinese brand that my father-in-law gives me.
6 cups a day!??!!??
Interesting stuff!
I’ve been alternating between decaf and regular green tea throughout the day (no caffeine before bedtime). I’m going to switch to all regular and try the steeping-decaffination.
On a related note - It’s tough to make 5-6 separate cups of green tea throughout the day. Some days I will throw 3 or 4 teabags into a big pot and make one huge pot of green tea, which I can drink throughout the day. Does anyone know if this would affect the tea at all? In other words, is it ok to brew the tea in the morning and drink it at night?
Also, does anyone make any iced green tea? Sounds good, and it would be a really convenient way to have green tea handy all day. Any thoughts/suggestions?
Phaedrus
Well, I buy the bottles of diet Arizona Green Tea to drink when I’m in the mood for something cold.
Anyone have any idea if the amount of “good stuff” in this tea is comparable to the tea you brew yourself?
Biotest used to sell a supplement with, what, 150 mg caffeine per serving? And now people are eliminating caffeine from green tea? I must have missed some major news. Can somebody fill me in?
I’ve used a lot of different brands. Yogi Tea Anti-Oxidant is the best-tasting so far. Which isn’t saying much.
I would think that the dunking method of reducing caffeine would also reduce beneficial compounds. Just like soaking beans and changing the water reduces the gas-forming compounds, but also reduces the desired nutrients.
Phaedrus - We posted a recipe for iced green tea in Reader Mail a few months back. Let’s see if I can dig it up…
Yep! Found it:
Iced Mint Green Tea
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Buy two kinds of green tea bags: regular green tea (any brand) and mint green tea from Celestial Seasonings. The latter is a blend of green tea, spearmint leaves, and peppermint leaves.
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Steep two bags of regular green tea and two bags of mint green tea in two cups of very hot water.
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After five minutes of steeping, take out the bags (give them a squeeze first) and add in two cups of cold water and a little Splenda if you want a sweet tea.
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Serve over ice.
No carbs, no calories, just icy green tea goodness.
From now on, I am calling Green Tea “Da Good Shit”.
All my friends make fun of me for drinking it instead of coffee.
Dan “I’ll dance on all your graves! Thanks to ‘da GOOD SHIT!!!’” McVicker
Bigelow makes a mint green tea that ain’t too bad.
I saw Arizona brand in the store this morning. It is brewed tea, so it ought to have some benefits, unless any beneficial compounds are destroyed by light. (?) BUT it has a lot of sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup.
If mint is not your bag, Lipton also offers Green Tea with a host of other flavor enhancements (ginseng/hone, berries, etc). Dan “The Grave Dancer” McVicker can also take “heart” in studies that show green tea also seems to have some benefits related to cardiovascular disease. (Pun intended)
old dogg
andersons, they have diet as well, wit splenda.
I recently started drinking Green Tea and I love the effects it is having on my mood. I don;t know if I could handle 6 cups a day I already pee all day long with all the water. I’d have to move my desk to the bathroom. Anyway green tea rocks
JBraswell, cool. I guess Trader Joe’s doesn’t sell the sugar-free version, or maybe they were out yesterday.
I too like the mood-enhancing effects. I described it as “alert but calm.” For me, the effects don’t last too long, though, maybe an hour. Then I need another hit. 
Does anyone know anything about Giant (the supermarket) brand Green Tea? It’s only $3 for 48 bags, which is much, much cheaper than any other brand I’ve found.