Want to be More Creative? Drink Tea!

Tea contains caffeine and theanine which improve mental speed, focus and accuracy

By Shaun Wooller
Just half a cup was enough to inspire great ideas after a few minutes. Volunteers who downed a brew were more imaginative in tests than those who drank water.
 
Tea contains caffeine and theanine, which improve mental speed, accuracy and focus. But these take 30 to 60 minutes to kick in – long after these experiments were finished.


Researchers from Peking University, China, say this means tea must have a positive mental effect.

Getty - Contributor Students who drank tea were answering more questions than those who just drank water

They believe it boosts people’s mood and helps them relax in a similar way to meditation. Singer Mick Jagger, scientist Albert Einstein and author C. S. Lewis are all famous tea drinkers.

Study leader Yan Huang ran two 20-minute experiments on a total of 90 students. Half of the students in each test drank up to one cup of tea, three minutes before the tasks began. The other half drank water.

In the first test, they were asked to create an “attractive” construction out of building blocks. And in the second, they had to come up with a “cool” name for a new noodle restaurant. Entries were scored for innovativeness and playfulness by a separate group of students.

Getty - Contributor Tea contains caffiene and theanine which can improve mental speed

The tea drinkers scored an average 6.54 points in the building block test and 4.11 in the name test. But the water drinkers only scored 6.03 points and 3.78 points, respectively.
 
Yan Huang said: “The current research demonstrates that drinking tea can improve creative performance with divergent thinking.