As someone who lost their stomach to stomach cancer and told not to drink caffeinated coffee, I have researched this a lot.
I used to love coffee but now it does not go down too well. When you have a stomach, it absorbs 50% of the caffeine and is also diluted acid-by-acid prior to introduction to the small intestine where the free 50% balance is absorbed promptly giving us that coffee kick. Without a stomach, you would be hit with its caffein kick essentially double and all at once with similar acidic impact.
Like many thinks even the decaf form no longer tastes “right” so I drink a lot of tea. Tea of all sorts.
The caffeine in tea is bound to tannins and is absorbed slowly and throughout the intestinal track. Its lower caffeine helps moderate its effect as well. Sure, you could make tea in a bitter ridiculous strength but normal black tea, like English Breakfast, is 50% the caffeine of coffee. Many White’s and Oolongs are 20% and Green tea is normally 10%. Rooibos tea is not really tea and has no caffeine. Almost all herb teas without black tea added are caffeine free.
Tea should be made with 195 degree water for black and 175 degree water for green and only 203 degree for herb and Rooibos. Steep the tea for as little as 3 minutes for green and no more than 5 minutes for black. Herb tea can steep longer.
Our US habit of boiling water with bags left in the pot is ruinous for traditional tea.
“Our US habit of boiling water with bags left in the pot is ruinous for traditional tea.”
People do this, really? I honestly have never heard of anyone in my life doing this. The way I saw my mother and grandmother, aunts, and everyone else do it was to bring the water to a boil, remove from heat, then add the tea bags or pour over the teabags and steep to whatever strength was desired.
Peach