Theanine as a business opportunity for junk green tea?

[beforewisdom]

I've been noticing myself and friends feeling blissy drinking Uji tea I got through o-cha, so I started reading up on theanine.

Theanine is an amino acid that can pass through the blood-brain barrier.

It produces relaxed, focused states of mind.

Interestingly, it seems to only be found in tea and a rare mushroom, with green tea being the best source and gyokuro being the best of the best source.

Googling around, I've found a lot of theanine capsules sold by supplement manufactures.

I wonder if that translated into a business opportunity for green tea growers. Instead of selling low quality green tea for very little money, the got more money by selling it to supplement manufactures who want to extract the thenaine.

[Evan Draper]

I'm not sure what your question is. But you can ask them:
http://www.taiyointernational.com

[beforewisdom]

I didn't ask a question, I was shooting the breeze about a topic we are all interested in.....green tea

Thanks for the interesting link .

[bonescwa]

Well how much money and product goes into producing a gram of fully processed theanine vs green tea. Maybe the theanine pills are artificially synthesized from things that are cheaper than green tea

[beforewisdom]

Well how much money and product goes into producing a gram of fully processed theanine vs green tea. Maybe the theanine pills are artificially synthesized from things that are cheaper than green tea

That is a good point, it may be possible to make theanine.

If not, it seems like a situation where you could sell junk quality green tea to supplement makers for more than you could sell it for as a beverage.

Even without theanine, I've seen green extracts and supplements all over the place. Given what quality green tea goes for, I'm sure those products aren't made from imported gyokuro

[daidokorocha]

I'm not sure about this, but what I am sure of is that junk green tea itself has had a lovely business opportunity in the health market for the States as they can mark it up a ton and sell it to people who want to drink green tea exclusively for the health benefits and don't care what they are buying.

[beforewisdom]

I'm an American. Junk green tea in supermarkets is priced very low. From what I have seen of supplement prices I wouldn't be surprised to learn that more money is made selling low quality green tea leaves to be made into supplements.

[Evan Draper]

It takes great care to produce high-theanine teas. Typically, they need to be shade-grown, and older leaves are not suitable. Supplements are advertised with measured quantities of theanine, so it's not like they can take shortcuts to get there, as in the case of crap tea sold by weight that is mostly cellulose.

[Se7en8ight]

It takes great care to produce high-theanine teas. Typically, they need to be shade-grown, and older leaves are not suitable. Supplements are advertised with measured quantities of theanine, so it's not like they can take shortcuts to get there, as in the case of crap tea sold by weight that is mostly cellulose.

Hello All

Just wanting to add to what Evan has said, the reason why Gyokuro retains the highest amount of theanine is because it is shaded. As the leaves age and get exposed to direct sunlight theanine gets converted into catechins.

Even if older or cheaper leaves contained theanine, Even then, synthesizing theanine is a lot more cost effective - though not necessarily more effective than its whole food counterpart

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[daidokorocha]

I'm an American. Junk green tea in supermarkets is priced very low. From what I have seen of supplement prices I wouldn't be surprised to learn that more money is made selling low quality green tea leaves to be made into supplements.

That's the green tea in supermarkets. There are definitely OTHER markets, and mainly the big culprit is online. This happens a lot with herbals and things, such as olive leaf. You can actually get the stuff really cheap... and yet some sites dedicated solely to it ranting and raving about how it is a miracle sell it at OUTLANDISH prices that can be 40 + dollars more expensive than a little site that sells general herbs. It is the places pushing the miracle aspect of teas and what not that one should be careful of. The supermarkets are pretty neutral there and price it so.