Theanine

Alright, its pop quiz time. (Hah, they're not just for school anymore!) Quick--and without looking it up--in 10 words or fewer, tell us what you see in the picture below. No peeking!

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Is the suspense killing you yet? Yes, if you guessed that this is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional model of a theanine molecule, then you guessed right! If so, then celebrate with your favorite tea. Even if you guessed something else, go ahead and celebrate with your favorite tea.

Here's the empirical formula for all you chemistry geeks (you know who you are): C₇H₁₄N₂O₃

Why am I devoting an entire blog entry to theanine? That's a fair question. The reason is that theanine is an amino acid with some amazing properties, as this Wikipedia article attests.

Odds are good we'll write more about theanine here at The Manly Teas, because it's a pretty important topic. Until then, if you want more information about this amazing amino acid, look at these online resources.

http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/nutsupdrugs/lth_0296.shtml

http://www.drugs.com/npc/l-theanine.html

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/search?term=theanine&submit=Search

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-green_tea.html

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/jan2006_report_theanine_01.htm

http://www.itmonline.org/arts/theanine.htm

http://www.prevmedctr.org/library/lib_greentea_esko.asp

I chose these sources as representative examples of the wide variety of information about theanine that is available online. Again, we'll most likely post more here, but I hope these sites will give you an overview of this amino acid and its nutritional importance.

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** Licensing information: This image was created by Ccroberts in ChemAxon MarvinSketch and MarvinSpace October 24, 2006 and is governed by the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Subject to disclaimers.

Where Are the Guys???

I am sitting here at the Argo Tea cafe at State and Randolph streets in Chicago. It's almost 1:45 in the afternoon. I estimate there are about 50 people here. It's fairly crowded. Aside from the staff, I see 6 men here, including me. This strikes me as odd.

I don't feel uncomfortable being in a place where the ratio of women to men is about 10 to 1. However, I am curious and a little disappointed. Where are the guys?

One of the purposes of this blog is to present tea in a guy-friendly manner. Yes, real men do drink tea. Yet, as I visually survey the patrons of this cafe, I see a lot of women enjoying a great beverage and very few men doing the same.

Of course, not everyone who walks into this cafe drinks their tea here. Many of the customers take their tea with them as they leave to go back to work, do errands, go sightseeing, or even return home. But the numbers for the latter group look about the same. I haven't seen everyone who came in and left and I haven't been counting them carefully, but it appears that nearly a dozen women come in and get some tea to go for every man who does the same.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that so many women are enjoying tea. In addition to tasting good, tea invites us to slow down, take a break, and savor each moment. I'm glad all these women are doing that, along with realizing the many health benefits that accompany tea consumption.

But where the hell are the guys? I don't know, but I'm determined to find out.