Too overwhelming, teas/effects/methods/equipment/taste/price

[teaforme2]

So I've spent about 4hrs over the course of three days (2hrs on this forum alone) researching teas (and I'm a speedy researcher).

I have three goals:
1. To find the best tea for overall health (with health being the most important factor).

2. To find the best tea to give me the "edge" at work....as in energy (but not necessarily caffeine), focus, stamina, etc.

3. To find the above tea (#2) in two varieties: one for the morning to wake me up AND give me that edge, and one for the afternoon to give me that edge without preventing me from being able to fall asleep at night. (I usually can't drink a tall coffee from Starbucks past 2pm otherwise it'll keep me up). (+ it would be nice to be able to drink something warm at night besides milk/soup that won't keep me up...i'm thinking white tea).

What I have found:
1. That there although only a few different most commonly known varieties, there is a TON of variation in each variety.
2. I think I need to look out for the chemicals "gaba", "umani", & "thenaine."
3. It looks like I need to look into matcha, sencha, shencha, and I've heard favorable things about the O-Cha brand.
4. That decaf tea usually takes enough of the good properties of tea to make it not as healthy overall....so I am probably going to avoid this.

Constraints/Good to Know About Me:
1. I don't care about taste at all, I am doing this only for the benefits.
2. I want something that is easy to prepare, I don't want to be spending too much time on this. (although it seems as if once you get the equipment you can make good tea in less than 5min from the moment you think you want some to the time you're drinking it).
3. It can't be too expensive (I don't want to be paying too much more than $1/cup....unless the benefits are significant). I'll be drinking tea at least twice a day...so even at $1, that's $60/mo and I'm still at the beginning of my career so I can't really afford too much more than that.
4. I want to be able to make the afternoon one at work.



Can someone please help me? I didn't realize I was going to be spending so much time. I admire all of you and you are definitely connoisseurs of tea. I am just a regular old guy trying to get some of the benefits. Up til now I was the tea bag w/ boiling water type of guy....or a tazo green tea at sbux guy....I'm learning a lot, but I can't afford to put more time into learning it, I just need to decide and start drinking the stuff!

Thanks in advance for all the help!

[nickE]

Welcome to TeaChat!

Constraints/Good to Know About Me:
1. I don't care about taste at all, I am doing this only for the benefits.
2. I want something that is easy to prepare, I don't want to be spending too much time on this. (although it seems as if once you get the equipment you can make good tea in less than 5min from the moment you think you want some to the time you're drinking it).
3. It can't be too expensive (I don't want to be paying too much more than $1/cup....unless the benefits are significant). I'll be drinking tea at least twice a day...so even at $1, that's $60/mo and I'm still at the beginning of my career so I can't really afford too much more than that.
4. I want to be able to make the afternoon one at work.

I think you just exiled most of the tea community.

Anyway, caffeine is most likely the only tangible effect that you're going to feel from tea. However, I have heard things about Gyokuro & Matcha that are interesting. This would be regarding the Theanine content. Most of these are expensive though, and are mostly drunk for the taste, not effects. They also take quite a bit of prep. time, which breaks your requirement #2 and #3

What I'm thinking is, "why would you drink tea if you don't like the taste?"

[Chip]

Moderator Post. Moved to Other Tea where it will be more at home since it wasn't quite an "introduction." For now a shadow topic was left in Introduction.

Regardless, welcome to the world of tasty tea ... Keep drinking it and you will see the benefit of enjoying the simple pleasure of a cup of fine tea.

[aya_s]

Tightly balled oolong teas can be steeped multiple times, and after several steeps it should have minimal caffeine. It's also considered quite healthy and will get you a goodly amount of tea per volume.

[artmom]

Too bad you want mostly health benefits; that leaves out my favorites, black teas. Of course, they still have less caffeine than coffee, because of the way the tea leaves are prepared, compared to coffee made from beans.

If you don't like the taste, I don't think you'll enjoy making the tea, choosing the tea, etc.

But, best wishes with your search.

[Tea_Rex]

It sounds like you want a pill more than a cup of tea. What about green tea extract for the health benefits?

[iannon]

It sounds like you want a pill more than a cup of tea. What about green tea extract for the health benefits?

+1 I was thinking along your lines as well Tea_Rex... If you dont want, or rather like, the whole process of making a session of loose leaf and dont particularly care what it tastes like..why bother? Some types of supplements are probably the way to go. not that I am saying dont drink losse leaf tea..cause i like promoting it and love the whole process of making it and enjoying it myself..just sayin,..it doesnt really sound like you do. I pologize if I am off base. either way welcome to the teachat community!

[Dresden]

Yup.... I would definitely go for a green tea extract supplement instead.

[teaforme2]

Thank you for the comments! I didn't mean to offend anyone or anybody.

It's not that I don't like the taste, I meant to say that don't worry about taste when making suggestions, I wanted suggestions based solely on nutritional benefits.

Green tea is not the most tasty thing in the world to me, but I like to drink a hot cup of tea every now and then (green or black...although I have almost given up black due to high caffeine and preference for green for the health benefits).

I would take the pill but it just seems, especially from everything that I have read, that I wouldn't get the maximum benefit from just a pill. Then again, if I am getting 80% of the benefit, then yes I will go with the pill because it's incredibly easy compared to making and drinking the tea.

It also seems I may have emphasized decaf a bit too much. In the morning I can surely handle caffeine (i'm just afraid of getting addicted), even up til 1-2pm I can probably handle the type of caffeine that's in green tea (but not coffee or black tea probably). But I would like to "enjoy" a warm cup of tea in the evening as well, and that's what I need a low-caf alternative for (without giving up nutrition).

Finally, from what I have seen there are lots of teas that could be made for even less than $1/cup. Even Matcha's and things from good brands...although some better/organic ones may go up into the $2/cup range. So I don't think the expense thing is really going to eliminate a majority of tea choices for me is it?

And does it really take more than 5min to prep?

I saw the moderator said something about this post....but it looks like I am still able to reply here?

[Dresden]

No offense taken!!!

Perhaps you should look into powdered sencha.... It's cheaper than matcha, organic and you're consuming the whole leaf for max benefits. You can also mix it in a water bottle for a cold beverage.

Here is an example.

Cheers,
Mike

[Chip]

Moderator post:

Teaforme2,

A "shadow" was left where you initially posted. When you click on the shadow, it takes you to this new location in Other Teas.

I will be deleting the shadow, so from now on, look for this topic under Other Teas!

[teaforme2]

Moderator post:

Teaforme2,

A "shadow" was left where you initially posted. When you click on the shadow, it takes you to this new location in Other Teas.

I will be deleting the shadow, so from now on, look for this topic under Other Teas!

Oh I see, thank you. I'll go find this under Other Teas, I hope I get a similar quantity and quality of feedback, if not better, on the other forum.

I'm actually drinking some tea bag green tea right now! I'm not quite of "acne-age" but I still have it and I think green tea helps with that as well...that's another reason I am on the hunt for the best nutritional/health benefits I can get from tea.

[rabbit]

*smacks forehead on desk*

[nickE]

*smacks forehead on desk*

[Chip]

Rabbits have desks?