Best wake me up kick

A good Sencha is cocaine, man.
Englisch/Irisch Breakfast come in after….
German " Friesenmischung" is good stuff too….

I saw a new article recently that suggested popping a mint in your mouth when you push the snooze button to avoid pressing it 8 times (LOL!) so that got me thinking… I bet astringency would work. I’ve tried highly astringent green teas in the morning (after my matcha normally) and it works! Wake up your tastebuds and the rest of your body will soon follow.

I know it has already been mentioned, but MateVana is great. I’m a coffee drinker and the caffeine doesn’t really bother me, but this had me a bit wired. I know it is described as tasting like coffee, but I think it is more chocolate/nut type flavoring.

I have not tried this one yet (is it new?), but it looks like it’d work.
http://steepster.com/teas/tazo/9679-focus

Ooo I do like the look of that focus one, I’ve wanted to try Yerba Mate for a while now, I’m going to look into that one

I haven’t tried it, but I’d think a strong mint tea would give you a sensory wake up w/o the caffeine. The idea came to me from my mouth wash (vanilla mint). Just using that REALLY wakes me up! For a sensory and physical wake up, maybe prepare a heavily minty tisane and use that to make a bowla matcha? I have tried that, and while I can’t remember the “wake up” factor, I know it tastes good. If you aren’t awake enough to think that much, The Tea Farm has a wonderful matcha, peppermint, and lemongrass blend tea bag called herb green and it only requires a min steeping so it can be ready in a hurry. http://www.theteafarm.com/item.asp?id=175&cat=

In the morning I like to have Adagio’s Black Dragon Pearls or Golden Monkey. I’m super-sensitive to caffeine, and those will have me shaking by the end of my early morning class.

Tried and true loose leafe Earl Grey from what I know is traditionally used with china black tea – and it’s seriously robust and caffeinated! If I’m wrong, someone please correct me. I like to double up on Trader Joes Irish Breakfast. Super dark and intense with the caffeine as well. Assam, China, and Kenyan black teas tend to be really heavily caffeinated, ceylon is much lighter. In some cases loose leaf is better not bagged in the pot because they need room to unfurl and release their flavor. If you use bags where the leaves are considerably broken and tending towards fannings, bagged can be infinitely better and you might even end up with a stronger cup all together! If you go loose leaf, always opt for more leaves instead of steeping longer than the recommended time. Caffeine gets released in the first 2 minutes of steeping time, and the tannins bitter the taste if left for too long. It’s a personal preference, but definitely worth the experimentation!

Either way when using loose leafe or bagged black. Get more caffeine and intense flavor out of your brew by doubling or sometimes tripling depending on the type of tea, but keep the steeping time within standards to avoid seriously bitter tannin action.

Gotta bring this thread back from the dead. If you like chai, Tipu’s instant (especially when made w/ water) makes me think “Holy crap that’s strong!” every single time I drink it. That comes from the spices, but if you want more caffeine you could make it the way I prefer- in 8oz of drip coffee. And what’s better is it’s instant so you don’t have to worry about starting your day w/ a screwed up cup of tea just cuz you aren’t awake yet. You could really make it quick and use instant coffee- then it would only take as long as it takes to heat water, dump ingredients, and stir.

I highly recommend Organic Dark Roast Yerba Mate from Mate Factor. For most days, I’m ok with an Assam or other black tea, but on mornings like today (I had an appointment), I needed to be awake and this got me jumping, but without the icky feeling of the caffeine from coffee. I love this stuff!