Older plants have better flavored leaves

Older plants have better flavored leaves but the leaves must be picked every few weeks because only the young leaves and buds are used. It takes up to 80,000 hand-plucked shoots are needed to produce one pound of top-grade tea. Producing tea is very labor intensive and every step is essential to the final product. Green tea contains two other stimulants in addition to caffeine. These substances, theobromine and theophylline, may affect heart rate and the central nervous system in a way somewhat similar to caffeine. These substances are also found in chocolate.Caffeine (including caffeine from green tea) has been shown to reduce the sedative effects of benzodiazepines (medications commonly used to treat anxiety, such as diazepam and lorazepam).Drinking several cups of green tea each day may hold the key to effective weight management and cardiac health. These biologically active compounds from green and white tea have a direct and dramatic effect on blood lipids that help lower total cholesterol and more importantly that reduce atherogenic small, dense LDL cholesterol particles, which lower cardiovascular disease risk.The highest level of green tea consumption was shown to cut the risk of functional and cognitive decline by close to one-half.However, the green tea in its brewed form was consistently more effective than the capsules in lowering LDL cholesterol levels.