Coffee 2 Tea

What is Caffeine? It is an alkaloid found naturally in such foods as coffee beans, tea, kola nuts, Yerba maté, guarana, and (in small amounts) cacao beans. Caffeine is created in plants as a form of pesticide, to kill of insects feeding on them. In its true form caffeine is a whitish-yellow powder substance, bitter in taste.

Caffeine’s main drug producing effects are: a stimulant that affect the central nervous system, effect the supply of oxygen to cells, the heart rate, and is a mild diuretic. Some studies show that small amounts of caffeine may increase our cognitive functioning and improve our mood.

One common source of caffeine is the coffee plant, the beans from which are used to produce coffee. Caffeine content varies substantially between Arabica and Robusta species  and to a lesser degree between varieties of each species. A single serving (6 to 8 fl oz) cup of  drip coffee contains around 100 to 125 mg of caffeine. However the world over coffee varies considerably in caffeine content per serving, and range from 75 mg to 250 mg.

Tea is another common source of caffeine in many cultures. In general tea contains half the amount of caffeine per serving than coffee, though certain types of tea, such as Lapsang sou chong smoked teas, and oolong contain less caffeine.

Just how much is a safe amount of caffeine, it is generally agreed that consuming up to 300 mg of caffeine per day is safe. That is the equivalence of drinking three cups of coffee or six cups of tea a day.

The basic rules that most people follow today includes using freshly drawn and boiled water and allowing one scoopful of loose tea or a one tea bag per person.

Brewing time is, it is agreed , all-important and depends on the type of tea you are brewing, Darjeeling requires from 3 to 5 minutes, Kenya form 2 to 4 minute and China Oolong 5 to 7 minute. At what point you add milk, however, has been a contentious subject for decades, Victorian etiquette was definite on the matter; the milk or cream had to be put in last, so that its addition could be rejected or limited.  The British novelist and essayist, George Orwell, who also published his own eleven golden rules for a “nice cup of tea’ in 1945, had equally firm views. Last was best, he wrote, for “by putting the tea in first and then stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk.” The last word goes t Nancy Mitford, the English aristocrat novelist and biographer, who claimed that “milk in first,” know as the “MIF” debate, was without doubt, not the “thing” to do.

Excerpt form Where to Take Tea: Susan Cohen