A Stomach for Tea

by Adam Yusko

When it comes to tea, some people are gifted with extraordinary stomachs. If you can wake up and have a cup, or four, of your favorite black tea and then eat breakfast, you may be such a person. However, if you’re like me, even the thought of tea before food causes your stomach to knot up and hurt.

Tea seems to be perfect the mixture for nauseating many of us, and in particular teas that contain high amounts of tannins seem to cause the most trouble. But I’ve found some surefire ways to counteract that, which I often practice on days when I have a near endless amount of time to drink tea.

Some of the best solutions I’ve borrowed from looking at how certain groups of people that would drink a large amount of young puerh eat and drink their tea. Why puerh? Because in its young and green/raw form it is possibly one of the teas with the most tannins. These people tend to have diets with a lot of meat, and a lot of oils. Yak butter tea is usually consumed by these people, which is a tea made with young puerh, yak butter, and salt.

While I do not have the courage to go about drinking tea made with yak butter, I think some ideas can come from it. Oils and perhaps a bit of salt can help prevent your stomach from hurting. Adapting that idea for a more western diet is perhaps make some buttered toast as a quick solution. Basically anything buttery and salty will be sure to work. For something with an United Kingdom flare to it try shortbread.

You don’t have to live with feeling sick while enjoying tea before food. Try these quick hints to prep your stomach before having a full fledged breakfast. Also great if you are on the run.