The Quiet Cup

What about a cuppa of green?

Many women over 55 have no problem with green tea itself. The problem is the way people talk about it, as if one cup will reorganise your hormones, your sleep and possibly your pension plan. Let me try a more reasonable approach: it might improve two things that are currently annoying you, and that is quite enough to be going on with. Specifically, the way your brain feels at eleven in the morning when you cannot locate a word you absolutely know. And the way evenings have started to feel slightly wired when they used to feel calm.

Some studies suggest that regular green tea consumption is associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment as we age. The evidence is not perfect, because nutrition research rarely is, but it is consistent enough to be interesting rather than dismissible. Green tea also contains L-theanine, an amino acid that appears to support calm focus without sedation. This is why a cup of green tea can feel steadier than a cup of coffee, even though both contain caffeine. It does not jolt you into productivity. It takes the edge off.

For women in the Third Season, that distinction matters. Many of us have already discovered that a second coffee at four in the afternoon is no longer consequence-free, and that the relationship between evening and rest has become more complicated than it was at forty. Green tea is not a sleep remedy and I will not pretend otherwise. But swapping a late-afternoon coffee for a cup of green tea may create fewer obstacles between you and a decent evening. The L-theanine may support a gentle settling of the mind. Some women will feel the difference, others may simply enjoy the cup. The evidence is promising rather than guaranteed, and the science is still developing.

Two or three cups a day, earlier rather than later, and made in a way you actually enjoy. That is the whole practical case. Green tea has the advantage of not asking you to create an account, download an app, or commit to a subscription box. It asks only for a kettle and a few minutes, which at this point in life is genuinely its best feature.