Comment · Fri, December 7, 2012 · Ceretropic
Best kind of tea for nootropics purposes?
Original post in this thread
1man_factory · 12 points
I'm a bit of a tea geek and I'm interested in their nootropics potential, whatever it may be.
Now I know that the EGCG in green tea may have some beneficial cognitive effects (and there may be other things in green tea that are good for that purpose as well), but black tea has significantly more l-theanine (google: l-theanine content of black tea).
So is the winner Oolong, or one of the two? Or hell, maybe even white tea is the best choice, it's supposed to have the highest caffeine content of any variety.
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
You have it backwards. White tea has the least amount of caffeine and the highest polyphenols and catechins, like EGCG. Black tea has the highest caffeine content and L-theanine due to the oxidation process. White and green teas will deliver more antioxidants. Black and oolong will deliver more caffeine and L-theanine.
It all depends on what you are looking for. There are also herbal teas and root teas live kava, that can deliver other unique substances you will not find in tea leaves.