I haven’t been able to blog this week because I went to the doctor for my gastric and was told not to drink tea. To quote the doctor, “when you have gastric, the upper limit of tea is zero.” Imagine my horror at that statement [1].

But the doctor has a point. I went to Google to see what the link between tea and gastric was, and according to an article, “Tea is a potent stimulant of gastric acid, and this can be reduced by adding milk and sugar.” [2] I suppose the good news is that adding milk and sugar will help but I tend to drink my tea straight. Perhaps it’s time I relooked at milk tea?

What I cannot really figure out (probably because I stopped biology after O levels) is the link between tea and gastric. Is it because tea is slightly acidic[3]? Or is it because of the caffeine levels in tea? After a bit more google, I think it’s because of the caffeine levels [4]. Which led me down another rabbit hole, this time about:

Caffeine and Tea
First off, what are the effects of caffeine (besides making my gastric worse)? Well, caffeine is said to keep you awake, increases your focus, and if you drink it before exercise, it can help burn up more fat. And because it’s also a diuretic, it can help detox the body[5].

So where does this caffeine come from?

Well, it’s part of the tea leaf[6], and is there as a natural insecticide, which means that all naturally caffeine-free teas are going to be herbal teas aka not made with actual tea. And contrary to popular belief, the type of tea doesn’t have much to do with the amount of caffeine inside. Instead, the level of caffeine in your tea has more to do with how you make the tea and what part of the tea plant your tea consists of [7]. Levels of caffeine can also vary according to the type of tea bush, the age of the leaf/bud, the altitude of the farms, and the length of withering (generally, new/young = more caffeine).

Non-caffeinated tea I’ve been drinking
Since I (obviously) cannot go without tea for very long, I ended up rummaging through the house and gathering all the non-caffeinated tea into one place. This is what I ended up with:

So this is what I’ve been drinking for the past few weeks. Going in a clockwise direction, I’ve had:

Lemongrass tea (the tea bag with the ribbon drawn onto it)
It tastes like lemon but without the sourness (if that even makes sense). It’s a very mild tea, possibly because it’s pure lemongrass, and I had to steep it for a pretty long time before I could taste it. I got it for 100 yen in Sasebo and it’s from Ishikigawa. The tea is made with no pesticides and the cover recommends that you steep it for three minutes with water that’s just been boiled.

As an added bonus, lemongrass is supposed to help promote digestion, fight bacteria and help with tiredness [8].

The tea behind it (in the shiny silver packet) is Chamomile tea from Marks and Spencer. Apparently, camomile means “earth apple”, but it took me quite some time to get used to this tea. Now, I find it really calming and will readily reach for it before bed. It has a sweet grassy flavour and is supposed to help promote digestion, make you sleep better, and improve your blood circulation (the Japanese literally means “improve tendency to being cold”)[9]

The next tea is my favourite — Mulberry tea! I bought this packet from Senganen in Kagoshima [10]. This tea has a very ‘clean’ fragrance and tastes neutral in a good way. It’s not bitter, it’s not sweet, but it’s not tasteless either. It’s sort of like a non-sweet/subdued version of うれしのみどり (more about the tea in this post). It’s my favourite tea to drink at night or after a heavy meal because it’s a good palate cleanser. If you want to try a herbal tea, this would be a good place to start because it’s extremely easy to drink.

Next to the Mulberry tea is the Hibiscus tea. This was a present from Ethel when she went to Okinawa[11]! The tea is a lovely deep red colour and tastes really tart. If you don’t like hot drinks, this tea also tastes really good cold! It gets a bit sweet as well and is perfect for hot days (so like almost every day in Singapore).

Hibiscus tea is also good for reducing tiredness (it feels like almost all herbal teas reduce tiredness!), helping with tired eyes, and is a diuretic as well.

In front of that is the Cocoa Chai Rooibos Tea (the small canister). I’m sure this was a present too, but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten who it’s from! If you’re reading, let me know so I can thank you properly! The tea smells very strongly of cinnamon, but the taste is quite mild compared to actual chai. There is an aftertaste of spices, so if that’s not your thing, you may want to avoid it. I’m probably not going to make it my nightcap but I think it would be a good morning tea. Next time I make it, I’ll probably try adding some milk as well.

While I haven’t looked up the benefits of the spices, rooibos is supposed to be an antioxidant, boosts your metabolism, and can help with allergies.

And now we’re getting to the packet teas! The packet in front of the rooibos is Mountain Berry tea [12]. According to its description, it’s a “melange of superfood fruits” and is made of saskatoon berries, currants, hibiscus, rosehips, seneka blueberries, cranberries, apple, flowers, herbs. It’s got a nice tart flavour and reminds me a lot of the hibiscus tea. The tea packet recommends steeping for 6 minutes at 99-degree water and to serve it with honey.

The last packet (the brown one) is Chocolate Mint Rooibos. I love chocolate mint but I’m a bit apprehensive when it turns up in teas, but thankfully the chocolate part seems to be mainly the scent. The taste is more minty than anything. That said, my teabag did break so it might have affected the taste a little. The taste of rooibos lost to the taste of the mint, although I could still taste it.

Finally, we have Rose Fairy Tale tea, a present from Jingying! This tea is from Shanghai and the container is so pretty! According to the label, hibiscus, pineapple, grapes, and mango are included, and I also saw some rose petals. The tea looks and smells amazing:

It smelt very fruity, and I loved the scent of the grape [13] that was present. When it was made into tea, the scent of roses became slightly more dominant. Its a mainly tart tea (perhaps because of the hibiscus?) but I could also taste the rose and grape. Overall, it’s a complex tea and I would definitely drink it as a dessert tea or just during the day.

And these are the teas that I’ve been drinking. The amount of herbal teas I have is small compared to my regular teas, so I guess my gastric gives me an excuse to buy more (actually it doesn’t. I still need to finish my current teas first).

Notes, References, and a lot of Links
[1] Not to mention that no drinking tea = no blog posts, even for recap posts because I like to drink the tea one more time before writing.

[2] Dubey, Pushpa, K. R. Sundram, and S. Nundy. “Effect of tea on gastric acid secretion.” Digestive diseases and sciences 29.3 (1984): 202-206. Link to abstract [2.1]

[2.1] Yes, I am footnoting a footnote. This is like tea-ception (now excuse me while I hide from that bad pun). This led me down a mini google-rabbit hole and I also found out that despite what you may have heard, drinking more green tea will not affect your chances of gastric cancer in any way. Not related to this blog post, but I found it interesting. Study: Tsubono, Yoshitaka, et al. “Green tea and the risk of gastric cancer in Japan.” New England Journal of Medicine 344.9 (2001): 632-636. and link to said study

[3] Apparently tea is mildly acidic, although the pH level depends on the type of tea. More information at this link.

[4] Cohen, Sidney, and Glenn H. Booth Jr. “Gastric acid secretion and lower-esophageal-sphincter pressure in response to coffee and caffeine.” New England Journal of Medicine 293.18 (1975): 897-899. (This is the link)

[5] All info translated from The Black Tea Bible (link leads to my review)

[6] Scientific name: Camellia sinensis

[7] More information at Factors Inflencing Caffeine Levels in Tea. It’s a really good read and I’d recommend clicking on the link if you want more information.

[8] Information from The Black Tea Bible

[9] Also from The Black Tea Bible. Actually, you can just assume that all information about the uses of the herbal teas are from the Black Tea Bible unless stated otherwise.

[10] One of my friends happens to be from Kagoshima and she recognised it immediately! She also promised to send more if I ever run out(:

[11] Ethel also blogs at flyeetelfly and you should totally follow her if you’re into food and travel.

[12] The packet says “Tealeaves.com” and “Masterblend No. 2221” so if you want to look for it, I think those would be the starting keywords.

[13] Muscat tea is also amazing, although I’ve sadly run out of that.