Caffeine is a type of alkaloid with effects that keeps you awake and promotes your digestion and absorption.

In this page, we are going to introduce the basic knowledge, detailed effects and tips for effective ingestion of caffeine.

Hope this article will help you benefit from caffeine in your life.

What is caffeine?

Caffeine is a type of compound called alkaloid that is contained in tea.

It is contained in tea and coffee, also used for medicine for cough and headache.

Caffeine causes bitterness in tea

Caffeine is an ingredient of bitterness as well as catechin contained in tea.

Caffeine attributes light bitterness, while catechin has astringency.

Who discovered caffeine?

Caffeine was discovered by a German doctor named Runge in 1819.

The year 1819 is in the late of the Edo period in Japan, which means that caffeine had been known very early in Europe.

Caffeine was first discovered in coffee, then also discovered in tea in 1827.

After, a lot of effects of caffeine got to be confirmed.

Effects of caffeine

Ingestion of caffeine has effects that;

• keep you awake
• stimulate heart and kidney to promote urination
• promote secretion of gastric acid that helps digestion and absorption of food
• promote fat burning in your body

Also, the highlight of caffeine is that caffeine effects are expected immediately as caffeine gets absorbed in your body right after ingestion.

Pay attention to the amount of your caffeine ingestion!

Taking caffeine has many effects, but it is confirmed that taking too much caffeine can cause some health risks.

For example, a study done by Hisashi Kurihara in 2015 reports that;

• taking more than 100mg caffeine may cause insomnia
• a risk of heart attack would be increased for 1 hour after taking more than 200mg of caffeine

However, as a cup tea in general (60ml) only contains about 16mg of caffeine, there would be no health problem as long as you simply enjoy tea.

Which one of tea and coffee has more caffeine?

Caffeine may remind you of coffee, but when comparing the same amount of tea leaves and coffee beans, tea leaves actually contain more caffeine than coffee beans.

For instance, sencha contains 1.7 times, Gyokuro has 2.7 times more caffeine than coffee beans.

However, when comparing the amount of caffeine per cup, more caffeine can be ingested in coffee than tea due to the amount to use of coffee beans.

For example, when comparing 100ml of coffee and tea, the amount of caffeine of each is ;

• Regular coffee: 60mg
• Sencha: 20mg

*Coca Cola Official Website

Therefore, those who want to effectively ingest caffeine should drink coffee rather than sencha.

Tips to effectively ingest caffeine in tea.

Since caffeine is likely to dissolve in hot water at a high temperature, brewing tea with hot water at a high temperature would be recommended. Whereas, there is not much caffeine in cold brew tea.

Thus, pay attention to the temperature of water when brewing tea.

Theanine is a type amino acid that has effects such as stress-relief and improvement of blood flow.

In this page, we are going to introduce the basic knowledge, detailed effects and tips for effective ingestion of theanine.

Hope this article will encourage you to drink tea for your health.

What is theanine?

Theanine is a type of amino acid contained in tea. This may surprise you but, tea contains amino acids below;

• Gultamine acid
• Arginie
• Asparagines acid
• Theanin
• Other

Particularly, theanine is the most contained amino acid that is about 50% of all types of amino acids in tea.

Theanine attributes sweetness and umami in tea.

Theanine is a unique ingredient of tea that attributes sweetness and umami.

As it is not contained in coffee or cocoa, tea is the only one that can taste refreshing sweetness and umami of Theanine.

Thenine was discovered by Japanese.

Theanine is an ingredient discovered in Gyokuro by Yajiro Sakato in 1950.

In fact, theanine is named after tea: It was named after the old scientific name of tea “thea sinensis”.

Effects of theanine

Theanine has an effect that releases alpha waves in brain.

“Alpha wave” may not sound familiar, but it is simply described as a brain wave that is released when relaxed.

When alpha waves are released in brain, these effects can be expected;

• Increase in memory
• Increase in concentration
• Tension-relief and improvement of blood flow
• Stress-relief

Isn’t it great to gain these effects only by drinking tea?

How to ingest theanine in tea

Theanine tends to be contained more in high-end tea with rich umami such as Gyokuro, Matcha and high-end Sencha.

Therefore, those who want to ensure enough theanine are recommended choosing higher ranked tea than they usually take.

Also, brewing tea with iced water can suppress catechin that causes astringency and caffeine that boosts your mood.

So, relaxation effects and umami of theanine can be more in ice-cold brewed tea than hot brewed tea.

Saponin is a type of glycosides that is slightly contained in tea.

It has effects such as antibacterial, fever reduction and antiasthmatic

In this page, we are going to introduce the basic information, taste and effects of saponin.

What is saponin?

Saponin is a type of glycosides that is slightly contained in tea.

It is named after “Shabon” that means bubbles, which comes from foam that looks like tiny bubbles on top of whisked Matcha.

Does saponin taste very bitter?

Saponin is an ingredient with its unique bitterness, astringency and egumi(harsh bitterness) taste.

However, as mentioned before, since saponin is only contained a small amount in tea, it does not make tea taste significantly bitter.

Is saponin found in animals?

Saponin is a compound mainly found in plants. For instance, it is contained in bellflower, licorice and date fruit.

However, it does not mean that saponin is only found in plants. Animals such as sea cucumber and starfish also have saponin.

Effects of saponin

Saponin has effects listed below;

• Antiasthmatic
• Antibacterial, Antivirus
• Inflammation relief, Fever reduction
• Sedation
• Cholesterol reduction and
• Antiobesity

*References: Glossary of Pharmaceutical Terms (The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan), Survey of Functional Components and Utilization (National Agriculture and Food Research Organization), "All You Need to Know about Japanese Tea" (Nobunkyo)

It is said that one of these listed effects of saponin that is Antibacterial/Antivirus especially fights off the flu virus.

Therefore, gargling with tea in addition to taking medicine would be helpful when not feeling well.