sana › Herbs & Plants › Green Tea
Green Tea · Camellia sinensis
Photo: (c) Kristof & Yulia, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · via iNaturalist
Herbs & Plants
Green Tea
Camellia sinensis
Green tea and black tea are the same leaf from the same bush. The only difference is whether it was left to darken after picking.
Benefits
Three cups carry about as much caffeine, with theanine alongside it, as the amount that lifted attention and reaction time.
Brings blood pressure down by a small, steady amount.
Brings down total cholesterol and the harmful kind that builds up in the arteries.
Green tea swilled around the mouth brings gum inflammation down.
What It Is Known For
More than a hundred people have been seriously ill after taking the extract, some needing a new liver, and the brewed leaf has never been linked to it.
It is more leaf in the cup and more caffeine with it, not a different plant doing something new.
What was tested was tea swilled around the mouth and what improved was the gums; nothing found counted cavities.
That is a good idea and it is not something the leaf does — what it saves you is the sugar.
Key Active Compounds
The main antioxidant in the leaf.
An amino acid found in almost no other plant.
About 30 mg in a cup.
How to Take It / Use It
Steep 1 teaspoon of leaves for 2 minutes in water just off the boil, and drink it. Boiling water scorches the leaf and turns it bitter.
Drink 3 or 4 cups a day and give it three months before judging it.
Brew it, let it cool, then swill a mouthful around for a minute once a day and spit it out.
Why It Works
L-theanine takes the sharp edge off caffeine, so attention comes up gradually instead of spiking.
Cautions
More than a hundred people have been seriously ill after taking green tea extract, some needing a new liver, while the brewed leaf has never been linked to it.
Tea drunk with a meal blocks some of the iron in it, so keep it between meals if you run low on iron.
Where It Comes From
Tea is the leaf of an evergreen shrub from the hills where southern China, Myanmar and northeast India meet. Green tea is heated soon after picking so the leaf never darkens. China grows the most, then India, Kenya and Sri Lanka.
How We Choose It
We check every product so you don't have to. A green tea only makes our list if:
- Loose leaf rather than bags. Bags are filled with the dust left after grading, which brews bitter.
- A harvest year printed on the pack. Green tea fades within a year of picking.
- One named origin, not a blend. Blends hide where the leaves came from — and what's on them.
If no product meets these standards, we don't list one. No exceptions for affiliates.
See our picks
Sources4
- Green tea and blood pressure: meta-analysis of 13 randomized trials. Scientific Reports. Meta-analysis
- Green tea, blood pressure and lipid profile: systematic review of 20 trials. Meta-analysis
- Tea, L-theanine and caffeine on cognition, sleep and mood. Nutrition Reviews. Meta-analysis
- European Food Safety Authority. Safety of green tea catechins. Assessment