Brew the Tea for a Short Time to Get More Caffeine From the Cup
Tea is a wonderful drink for health, but tea drinkers also drink it for pleasure and alertness. If you are concerned about the amount of caffeine available to you from tea, change the recommended brewing times .
Chemist Nikolai Kunert from Jacobs University Bremen in Germany tells NPR how it works:
When you brew tea, “caffeine comes out first” from the leaves, says chemist Kunert. If you keep infusing, compounds called thearubigins seep out of the plant, and some of them actually bind to caffeine, he says, which means caffeine can’t bind to receptors in your brain and wake you up. The longer you brew the tea, the less caffeine is available to your body, so shorter tea can be more invigorating, Kunert says.
Conversely, if you don’t want a caffeinated portion, keep infusing. When it comes to caffeine, tea affects us differently than coffee – it is metabolized more slowly, and the compounds in tea can counteract the anxiety effects of too much caffeine. Still, if you are monitoring your caffeine intake, keep an eye on the brewing time.
There are many other tips and fun facts in the NPR article, like the thinner the cup, the longer the drink will stay hot.
Tea Tuesdays: Chemis-Tea for the Perfect English Style Cup of Tea | NPR