THIS tea. This may be the beginning to solving a mystery.

You see, when I lived in Japan for a year, I would make and enjoy teas just like this. I really love this flavor of green tea. It tastes and especially smells great.

*However*, after almost a year, I realized that certain green teas caused what I'm guessing is a slight allergic reaction. I felt a slight dryness on the tip of my tongue, and a slight tightening/itchiness at the back of my throat. THAT is precisely the reaction I have to this green tea.

I do not react to most green teas this way. I'm rather miffed at the injustice of finding a tea I really enjoy that, truth be told, I shouldn't drink. Grrrr.

I'd love to find out what specifically is causing the negative reaction, hoping to find ones that taste similarly while not causing said reaction. Man, that'd be great. *sigh*

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Comments:

Alex Zorach wrote: on February 26th, 2014

That sounds weird, and rather unfortunate, but it's good that you don't encounter it with teas in general.

The astringency in green teas can produce dryness and tightening sensations, but not itchiness...that does sound like an allergy to me. I wonder if it's something in the tea, or something in an additive, or some function of the tea's processing. Allergies can be rather quirky. My dad has a lot of things that he is allergic to raw, but not cooked, presumably because cooking denatures certain proteins. It seems conceivable to me that this sort of thing could explain differences in how tea is processed. But it also seems intuitively plausible that it could be some sort of additive, like a pesticide, or possibly even something associated with the tea bag and packaging.

Did you encounter that sensation with any of the teas in Japan? Most Japanese teas are produced very differently from this one, which is a Chinese tea.

Good luck unravelling the mystery; I hope you are able to find some green teas that you enjoy but that don't create any unpleasant reactions!

Brytta Sóþword wrote: on February 26th, 2014

Yep, there was the same reaction with some green teas in Japan. It took me awhile to recognize it, though, because sometimes the reaction was delayed and I had only ever heard of green teas *helping* sore throats. In fact, my reaction once I felt this response was to *drink more green tea to see if doing so helped*. It wasn't until the last third or so of my stay there that I finally identified the tea as the source of the problem. I never did work out what kind of green tea it was, though.

So yeah, it's got to be something to do with either the style of tea, a preservative, or something in the packaging. I'd love to find out what it is. Guess I'll keep trying teas and see when it happens again. Hooray for being my own lab rat! :-)

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