A good tea that can wake me up like coffee does?

[gatto]

I love coffee, don't get me wrong but up at school the only coffee I have access to is starbucks and dining hall coffee which makes me very sad. I have a little pour over filter holder that makes coffee one cup at a time but I don't have a lot of time in the mornings so I was hoping I could find a loose tea that will wake me up like a cup of coffee. The other reason coffee is a little more trouble then tea is that I put milk in my coffee but I drink my tea straight so that is just one less thing filling up my tiny little dorm fridge. Thanks!

oh .. this might help, my favorite tea is black tea but I also like green tea and a few fruity teas, not a big fan of flowery tea. I'd definitely prefer a black with a lot of caffeine over any other but at this point I'll try anything.

[riooso]

I drink teas from a place here in California called "Petes'". I drink English Breakfast and it really wakes me up. I am sure that it does not rate with the very top teas but it is good. My daughter use to work there and she said the they only use the top 3 leaves of the plant for their tea.

Take care,
Richard

[Roman414]

That is one of the functions of a good breakfast blend. I think the Irish Breakfast teas are a bit stouter than the English Breakfast teas, generally speaking. (The best solution is to go to bed a little earlier, if possible!).

[mdunn]

That is one of the functions of a good breakfast blend. I think the Irish Breakfast teas are a bit stouter than the English Breakfast teas, generally speaking. (The best solution is to go to bed a little earlier, if possible!).

puh-lease! hes at school! the point of it is to stay up late!! :biggrin:

[riooso]

Careful with good tea! It is very mellow in the way that it delivers stimulants but it lasts a long time and can keep you awake. I find that suddenly I will wake at 2am and that is what is going, I'm awake!:biggrin:

Later,
Richard

[gatto]

hehe thanks for the advice everybody! I'll try to find a good breakfast tea :001_smile

[Roman414]

Point taken, Mdunn.

[Monkeyboy]

How about good old fashioned no-doze?

Strong black tea only has 1/3 to 1/2 the caffeine content of coffee so you'd need to brew a big gulp sized cup to get the same kick.

[OldSaw]

How about good old fashioned no-doze?

Strong black tea only has 1/3 to 1/2 the caffeine content of coffee so you'd need to brew a big gulp sized cup to get the same kick.

That can really upset your stomach. I have found Mad Croc gum to be far more effective and it does not upset my stomach. The military has done extensive studies on stimulants, including amphetamines, and found caffeinated gum to be the best stimulant and delivery system with the least side effects. The caffeine is absorbed through the lining of the mouth and is very fast acting.

I find it very effective at staving off that after lunch drowsiness.

[gatto]

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/accessories/5a65/?cpg=ab

I've been really tempted to try this, but it wouldn't help me because I tend to take showers at night and I'm totally spoiled when it comes to bath gel

[Howard Newell]

I'm still not convinced that you absorb enough or any caffeine through your skin for the bars of soap to be functional as opposed to a gimmick.
One of the no name shu pu'ers I've had contained enough caffeine that it had nearly the same effect as coffee on me, but it didn't give me that "heart kicking its way out of my chest" effect.

[_JP_]

While I am no expert, I play one on the Internet. Below is something about caffiene in tea that I swiped from The Tea House (http://theteahouse.com) web site.

------
The amount of caffeine that is in your cup can vary depending on a few factors. Firstly, small particle and broken leaves will release their caffeine much more quickly than whole leaf teas. Secondly, the longer you steep the leaves, the more caffeine will be released. Thirdly, the hotter the water used to infuse the leaves, the faster the caffeine is released. These factors, combined with the actual amount of leaf used, can all effect the final outcome. Generally speaking the lesser the degree of oxidation, the lower the initial amount of caffeine that will be released. Green teas, for example Pi Lo Chun or Dragon Well, are typically considered to contain the least. Next are White and Yellow teas such as Silver Needle. Lightly oxidized oolongs like Jade or Green Oolong have less than more heavily oxidized ones like Xiao Hong Pao or Ti Kuan Yin. Black and compressed teas, like Keemun or the black tea bricks, are thought to have the most due to their greater oxidation. Base on 8 fluid oz of water and 3 grams of dry leaf, green teas can give off between 5 - 25 mg, whites and yellows from 15-35mg; oolongs between 25 - 75mg; and blacks from 50 - 100mg. By comparison, a typical 8 oz cup of drip coffee can contain 150mg.
----------

BTW, many quality loose leaf teas can be infused two or more times. Cheaper and better tasting tea in the long run that way.

[rkowalick]

The thing with tea vs. coffee is that many researchers believe that tea just isn't capable of delivering the caffeine kick of coffee because of its polyphenol content (ie, tannins). These have been shown to reduce the absorbtion rate of caffeine. Coffee does not have these compounds, thus the caffeine gets absorbed very quickly.

Try this sometime:

Drink a big cup of coffee and compare that to how you feel when you drink double that amount of strongly brewed tea. One of them with make your heart pump like crazy and I'm sure you can guess by now which one it is.

[gatto]

that could be a good thing, I'm not looking for that jittery heart pounding affect. Just the ugh I need to sit through organic chem at 9 AM I hope don't yawn and fall asleep in the front row all over my notes kind of boost. I don't want to be THAT awake, organic chem is boring. I just need to be not asleep. So I guess I'll need to find a good strong black tea and learn to like it dark, I usually don't leave tea brewing too long. Does anyone break up the leaves in their loose tea? I might give it a try and see if it does anything.

[whiskerlips]

Celestial Seasonings makes a black tea called "Morning Thunder." No joke. It's available at many major supermarkets.

[bones59]

Pu-erh. It's the coffee drinkers tea:001_smile

[blade08]

What you want is a good Assam tea, the tea that is so popular in England and most of the 'western' world. Brew it strong (that means more tea, not a prolonged steeping time).

[sphughes]

I have been enjoying a tea I picked up from Adagio that is a black called Yunnan Noir. I am sipping some now and enjoying it. Since I am in a hotel, it is a far superior option to the envelope of swill in the room. IMO the act of preparing the morning drink does more to wake me up then the caffeine content. Just having to focus to perform the task, be it grinding coffee beans and loading up my Technivorm, or getting my Yixing prepared, gets me alert to the point that I am up and coherent.

-Scott

[Hobbesoxon]

I like the roundhouse-kick-to-the-head that a Bulang pu'er delivers to welcome me into the new day.

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/brucelee/brucegodflyingkick.jpg

What better way to start afresh each morn?


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

[AKady]

Hobbes- thats not a roundhouse kick.

Gatto- I find that coldpress (http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2005/07/how_to_cold_pre.html) helps in the morning rush. I put the water in the microwave before I jump in the shower. Then pour and go. I drink my coffee strait so it works well for me. I also believe that it is the taste of coffee that helps wake me up not the caffine, cause when I spring and get a latte or something fancy it just doesnt do the job.

Also last semester I was getting so little sleep before my 8 am's I had a cup of coffee with 4 shots of espresso added(not recommended ulsores happen)

[gatto]

I've worked in several coffee shops, at one of them we use to calibrate both espresso machines every hour by pouring 6 shots and timing them, guess who drank it all.

[EAnglin]

Matcha.

Find an inexpensive but tasty one and prep can be very easy- spoonful of powder, hot water and one of those little immersion blenders that fit down in your mug and presto, the tea equivalent of an espresso shot.

[kongjie]

I drink both coffee and tea. Some days just one or the other. At work we have Peet's in one of those crappy rented drippers, the grounds have long lost their flavor and the coffee tastes like crap.

Tea I make in my cubicle with my own pot, cooler water and my own leaves. It's far, far superior.

However, when I want to get that wake-me-up feeling, I go for the crappy coffee. I'm sure part of it is psychological--the smell of the coffee, like they show in the commercials.

You may not find a satisfactory substitute.

[DMac]

I drink a lot of black tea, and I like one in the morning that gives me a kickstart. The only three teas I've found that actually made me jittery from caffeine were Bigelow Early Grey (which is not that great), and Twinings English Breakfast and Twinings Irish Breakfast. I'm sure there are more around, but these three are readily available and will definitely wake you up.

[expatCanuck]

Pu-erh. It's the coffee drinkers tea:001_smile+1
Some pu-erhs (Bulang comes to mind) provide a definite kick.

[gatto]

Totally lame but a friend of mine gave me a few tazo teabags called awake. They're not too bad. They have the usual awkward smashed up bit of leaves from god knows where taste that almost every teabag I've ever had has. Next time I'm out I'm going to pick up some loose black tea. I'll probably grab 4-6 oz of a few different kinds (maybe 5-6) and try them all. Overall for lazy I need to wake up tea I approve of awake.

[professorchaos]

Celestial Seasonings makes a black tea called "Morning Thunder." No joke. It's available at many major supermarkets.


Morning Thunder is no joke! Once upon a time, I drank much too much of it. I was jittery like a street walker at the a** end of a two day bender.

[expatCanuck]

... I was jittery like a street walker at the a** end of a two day bender.Now there's a lovely image.

[burnwood]

That can really upset your stomach. I have found Mad Croc gum to be far more effective and it does not upset my stomach. The military has done extensive studies on stimulants, including amphetamines, and found caffeinated gum to be the best stimulant and delivery system with the least side effects. The caffeine is absorbed through the lining of the mouth and is very fast acting.

I find it very effective at staving off that after lunch drowsiness.

where you getting that Mad Croc gum? might get you off the list.
I guess Gatto like me doesnt like coffee or coffee taste.

[gatto]

nope, in the OP I mentioned that I love coffee but have you ever tried making good coffee in a dorm room? doesn't work

[King of Kailua]

Like coffee does? Hmm.. Try Celestial Seasoning's Morning Thunder.

I pretty much stick to loose taiwanese teas though and have found that drinking tea early can tighten my gut up. I usually have a cup of Kona coffee with breakfast to jump start the batteries, then I go for the steady even keel of a nice oolong like Iron Goddess (Ti Kuan Yin). I can't tell you much about the Iron Goddess because the package I have is all in mandarin, but it is a good tea to get the synapses popping again. And from what I understand it is a premium oolong.

[burnwood]

nope, in the OP I mentioned that I love coffee but have you ever tried making good coffee in a dorm room? doesn't work

dang dorm rooms. well I am old so I forgot to read all of your opening post.
Still, coffee is blech to me.

[OldSaw]

where you getting that Mad Croc gum? might get you off the list.
I guess Gatto like me doesnt like coffee or coffee taste.

I have gotten it at Walgreens, but my primary source is Shopko. Shopko is pretty regional. They are in parts of Wisconsin and for some reason the Pacific Northwest.

[expatCanuck]

I drink both coffee and tea. Some days just one or the other. At work we have Peet's in one of those crappy rented drippers, the grounds have long lost their flavor and the coffee tastes like crap.

Tea I make in my cubicle with my own pot, cooler water and my own leaves. It's far, far superior.

However, when I want to get that wake-me-up feeling, I go for the crappy coffee. I'm sure part of it is psychological--the smell of the coffee, like they show in the commercials.I used to just make tea at work like you do. Wanted coffee. So I bought a French press. Now I can make coffee in my cubicle with my own pot, cooler water and my own grinds. And, yeah, it's far, far superior.

[gatto]

does a french press leave grinds in the coffee? I heard that once and that is what kept me away from one