Last week I started my green tea diet. It is very basic, the idea just being to consciously drink green tea every day in a decent quantity. If you did not read my previous post, you can find it here. Well, the first week has passed, so its time to report on what happened.

My first week of green tea dieting was met with both success and failure. I started out the week very strong, drinking green tea each morning and evening, and even some iced green tea throughout the day. One of the initial hiccups was that I didn’t have as much green tea as I thought I did. We recently moved and so all my tea, of which I have a lot, was in different drawers and cabinets. I had to go round it all up, and in doing so I thought I’d find a nice little cache of green tea. Well, I didn’t have all that much. I had some jasmine tea, some genmaicha, and some green tea powder for iced tea.

I’ll go into the differences in these teas in a moment. For whatever reason I started drinking a good amount of genmaicha and the iced stuff, but it started to taper off near the end of the week. It was mostly that I wasn’t very disciplined, but for now (for the sake of my pride) I’m going to blame my lack of selection and the fact that I didn’t quite have the right green tea.

The jasmine tea mostly works, but its not pure green tea. Jasmine tea is usually made of green tea with jasmine buds or flowers that are added in. It gives the tea a very floral taste but shouldn’t take away from any benefits. Still, it didn’t seem quite the same.

Genmaicha is a type of Japanese green tea that has been roasted corn added to it. There is usually quite a bit of roasted corn in it, and it affects the flavor significantly. I find it to be a very pleasant and drinkable tea, but I can’t help suspect that it is not quite as beneficial as just straight up green tea.

Then I also had this powered tea for making iced tea. It is not instant tea, and not some lipton junk either. It is actually really good stuff, but only when you want iced tea. I found it at the local asian supermarket and I plan to keep a lot on hand for this green tea diet experiment.

All that being said, I really wanted some more staple Chinese or Japanese green tea. So today I went to a local tea shop here called Tea Embassy. They have a remarkable selection of tea and I was able to talk to the owner a bit and get some suggestions. I was going to go for some kind of Chinese green tea. Chinese green tea is often less astringent or grassy than Japanese tea, and right now that suits my fancy a bit more. I have had a lot of Dragon Well green tea in the past, but I wanted to try something different. I ended up getting some tea called White Monkey. Even though it has white in the name, it is a green tea and from China. It is a delicate tea and I’ll update this post when I’ve tried it, but I’m hoping now that I have it, I’ll be a little more inspired in my tea drinking diet this next week. I didn’t fulfill my stated quantity of tea drunk last week for every day near the end, but I was close. I’ll let you know next week if I can get this green tea diet going a little better.

Why, do you ask, am I starting a green tea diet? Well, the other day I was talking to my good friend, and we were discussing the value of tea and coffee, and how not only are they the most sought after beverages all around the world, but they also contain the best stuff for you. Over the last few years I’ve become quite the avid tea drinker, and its something very enjoyable to me. However, I drink green tea (among other teas) kind of randomly, as they suit my fancy. As my friend and I were talking, I realized how easy it would be to simply be more consistent in my tea drinking and hopefully reap some great health benefits in the process. I really enjoy green tea anyway, so I think this green tea diet will be fun and informative.

sencha tea leaevs

So let me explain what I intend to do. This will likely change, but we always need a starting point. Basically, I plan to have at least two pots of green tea each day. One pot in the morning, and one pot in the evening. Each pot will be approximately 16oz. in size. I will not confine myself to just one kind of green tea, but rather drink a few different kinds. Off the top of my head, I will likely drink some sencha, gunpowder, and a few chinese types. Also, if I get hungry or snackish for something bad, I will try to drink green tea instead. Other than that, I will not consciously make any other changes to my diet.

I will track my progress on at least a weekly basis, if not a little more often. I will post how well I am doing in sticking to my green tea diet, and mention if I notice anything different in my life (whether it be appetite, weight loss, energy, etc.)

Today is July 20, 2010, and I plan to start this tomorrow. Tune in to closet foodie for updates weekly. I will probably make a new category for this green tea diet experiment and put it up in the menu bar so you can follow along with me if you like, or if you are reading this after the fact, you can go back through and check my progress.

-Ben