33 replies to this topic

[Athanasios]

I think this can be summed up quickly:  White tea is healthier than green tea -- it's more potent.  In effect, the more processing the tea leaves encounter, the less potent they become:  black tea (most processed) < green tea < white tea (least processed).  All three of these tea come from the exact same plant/leaf.

This may be true, from an EGCG standpoint, on a leaf comparison basis, but one more thing to add, drinking a powdered green tea will be better than a water extracted white tea. This is because a lot of the EGCG is not extracted when the leaf is put into hot water, although most the caffeine is. I have not seen the numbers on white powdered tea, but it should be the best, then powdered sencha, then matcha.

I drink powdered sencha as sencha was what the japanese green tea research was based on, it is definitely powerful enough to easily get the studied dosage, and I prefer the taste over the white tea powder that I have had.

[goku]

I just drink the white tea leaves and chew the grass like cattle. Then if I don't eat them all I pour water on again and eat more.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep caffeine down while drinking other than going white? I hate caffeine's effects on my body.

I've heard you can pour water on tea, let steep for 1 minute, then strain, then pour more water on it, and most of the caffeine is gone but the antioxidants mostly remain. But that's alot of trouble to go through every time.

[DukeNukem]

This may be true, from an EGCG standpoint, on a leaf comparison basis, but one more thing to add, drinking a powdered green tea will be better than a water extracted white tea.

I read a year or so ago that a study showed taking green tea pills provides more benefit that drinking tea, so this seems to support your claim. I personally drink a lot of www.Teastea.com Green/White Tea, plus I take New Chapter's Green/White tea capsules (1/day).

[Athanasios]

If you want to look into it more, I uploaded some articles in the members only resource sharing. The subject line is: "Egcg contents of green tea and matcha", and it is on the second page back.

It is basically a comparison of water extracted tea vs. alcohol extracted. The assumption they made was that the alcohol extracted content would be similar to eating the whole leaf.