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Low Caffeine Tea

Tea was used to be called "Mezamashso"(wake up herb). It was drunk by Buddhist priests who had to fight to stay awake during their meditation. This is because tea contains caffeine which acts as a stimulant. Tea is still a very useful drink especially for the people who work or study hard until late night. However, for some people, it could disturb their sleep when they drink before going to bed. How much caffeine the green tea contains? Generally speaking, the fine green tea, Gyokuro, contains 4% caffeine, Sencha contains 3% , and Bancha and Jojicha contains only 2 %. Each tea type contains different amount of caffeine, because the tea leaves that were grown in the shade or sprouts contains more caffeine as to hard and grown up leaves have less. Bancha and Hojicha acts mildly stimulating tonic because they contain less caffeine. Recently a new technique, which can take some caffeine out from the tea was found. With that technique, it became possible to make 1% or less caffeine tea. To make low caffeine tea, tea leaves are boiled during the processing period instead of steamed as regular tea. Caffeine comes out in the hot water during the boiling process to produce tea which contains only 1% caffeine. After that, process the tea leaves with the same way as other regular tea. Today, the low caffeine tea is sold in three types: powder, tea bags, or instant tea. They are advertised as "For the people sensitive to caffeine", or "You can drink it even before going to bed" .

(Tea Experiment Station)