Yes, green tea has caffeine, so stop asking about it

In my jaunts to various tea shops I hear lots of snippets of conversations between employees and customers. Resisting the urge to answer questions before the person who actually works in the shop can open their mouth is quite the challenge. Shiny new tea sets just get me so excited.

However, there was one instance I absolutely wish I’d said something. The experience will haunt the rest of my days. It makes me cringe for two very important, yet different reasons.

A young woman was asking one of the employees at this particular shop about the caffeine content in tea. Fair enough, people are wary about how much caffeine they consume, and awareness can only be a good thing. The first cringe moment came when the lady asked the same dreaded question – “Is there caffeine in green tea?”

Now I know that green tea is marketed as a magic health bestowing super food these days, but a part of me dies every time I hear the question. Green tea isn’t as familiar to Australian’s as black tea thanks to our English heritage. Yet I still don’t know why it seems like such a quantum leap to realise that since green tea is still tea, it has caffeine.

The second cringe in the exchange came only moments later, and it caught me completely off guard. The employee didn’t know the answer, and had to ask someone else.

What.

Okay, this particular shop had only opened recently so most of the people working there were still coming to grips with everything. Working somewhere new is daunting and remembering all the training it tough when you’re on the spot. But this is a basic and fundamental principle of tea. It was lucky I was too busy making a purchase, otherwise I would have stormed out of there in equal parts enraged and disgusted.