Tea, Caffeine & Decision Companion
Door pages (Home, Tea basics, Cup reference, Glossary) are also available in Hong Kong Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Modules 1–4 remain English for now (Phase B).
You tip hot water over a handful of leaves. Steam rises. The water darkens—maybe green-gold, maybe deep amber—and a smell fills the room that is somehow both sharp and soft. Twenty minutes later you are a little more awake. Sometimes you also feel a little calmer. Coffee can wake you up too. So why does tea so often feel like a different kind of alertness?
That question is the door into this site.
This is not a lab notebook and not a sales brochure. It is a story-shaped journey through a drink that almost everyone has tried and almost nobody fully explains. The facts come from owner-supplied source packs, and—where we expand a chapter—from peer-reviewed papers, historical archives, and university pages we opened and checked. The owner of this site is an economist. We do not invent economic theories here. We only retell what those sources already support—in plain English a smart high-school student can follow.
Each lesson is meant to be long enough to be interesting and short enough to stay a story. Clickable footnotes work both ways (tap the number → source; tap the caret → back to the sentence; hover often shows a popup). Denser study tables and side-stories sit in collapsed “More detail…” foldouts so the open page does not feel like a wall of text. The Bibliography remains the master map across the whole site.
Start here
| If you want… | Open |
|---|---|
| Labels — what English Breakfast, sencha, matcha, bag vs loose usually mean | Tea basics |
| Numbers — typical milligrams in a 250 mL mug | Cup reference |
| The full story — four modules, sixteen lessons | Modules overview |
What this journey is about
Think of four modules that follow one continuous thread—each with four lessons matching the source-pack branches.
First you meet the leaf—where tea comes from, why green and black look so different, what brewing pulls into the mug, and three headline compounds. Then you follow those compounds into the body: brain signaling, brain-wave patterns, stress hormones, and quiet body signals. Next you zoom out. Tea remade trade balances, became a monastic focus aid, and even a warm mug in the hand shows up in experiments on trust. A short brewing break can also act as a practical stress reset. Finally you ask the decision question: do drinks nudge how fast we answer, how much risk we take, how much we care about tomorrow, and how trusting we are in a first move?
You can start anywhere. But if you read in order, each lesson hands you a reason to open the next.
The four modules (at a glance)
- The Chemical Core — Plants · Processing · Brewing · Compounds
- Body, Brain & Mood — Brain action · Brain waves · Stress hormones · Body signals
- History, Ritual & Warmth — Trade history · Monastic path · Warmth & trust · Ritual & stress
- Decisions & Choices — Dual-process · Risk & waiting · Trust games · Study protocols
A full curriculum map of all sixteen lessons sits on the Modules overview.
How to travel with this site
When a number appears—say “about 30–50 mg caffeine”—treat it as a typical range from the packs, not a promise about your exact mug. Brands, leaves, and steep times differ. The Cup reference is the quick table for a common 250 mL cup.
New to grocery and cafe labels? Start with Tea basics before or alongside Module 1.
When a technical word appears, we define it in the story the first time. The Glossary is there when you want a one-line reminder (with links into the right module hub).
When you wonder how a brewing fact connects to mood, or a warm mug to a trust game, open Linkages. Those eleven bridges sew the modules together.
When you want the paper behind a name-and-year—or a footnote marker on a lesson page—click the footnote or open the Bibliography.
What we refuse to invent
We do not invent new percentages, mechanisms, history figures, or study results. We do not paste walls of lab equations. Everything here should trace back to the verified packs or a source we opened and listed. That honesty is part of the story: curiosity without costume jewelry.
Ready? Pour an imaginary cup—and start with Tea basics if labels feel confusing, then Module 1: The Chemical Core—or skim the roadmap first.