I find it interesting that while lifelong tea drinkers and connoisseurs consume green tea in liquid form (or perhaps dabble in treats sprinkled with Matcha), there is a subculture of green tea fans who consume the product by smoking it.
I wonder who even first looked at a tea plant and said, “I can smoke that!” As it turns out, this practice is fairly old and not uncommon. In China, one can find entire families gathered around a hookah, taking turns smoking green tea. In the U.S., experimental teenagers are drawn to it because it’s a legal way to get a mild high. Anxiety-ridden college students fill pipes with the fannings from green tea bags, and light up to calm their nerves. Even athletes–who usually abstain from any type of drug-like substance–find themselves smoking tea for its supposed fat-burning properties.
Regarding safety, some argue that tea smoke is not harmful to the lungs, as the free radicals & damaging molecules are offset by green tea’s protective antioxidant properties. Camellia sinensis also contains theanine, which has been shown to protect the brain from any neural damage. Is smoking tea actually good for you though? Probably not. It is likely not as bad as smoking tobacco, but that’s no reason to start smoking any time soon.
This topic is fairly controversial, and the practice of smoking green tea is still too limited to have warranted any large-scale medical studies to find possible benefits or harmful effects. Until science releases any opinions or findings on the matter, this author will stick to the tried and tested forms of the wonder plant. And besides, it’s not much fun consuming green tea if there isn’t a cute teapot involved!
Wow – I’ve never even heard of this practice. Not sure how I could have missed it. Thank you so much for introducing it to me. As a former hippie- I do remember the days when smoking just about anything was always considered. I would hate to tarnish this wonderful medicinal plant. You said that no large scale studies have been done. Is there any small scale research on this practice of smoking green tea? Asian is decades ahead of us in evaluating green tea. Perhaps some preliminary data exists. Until then, I’m with you. I’m more than happy to drink this wonderful brew.
Adela, this one is completely new to me. Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention.
As far as the possible health benefits of smoking tea, my guess would be that there aren’t any from the direct effects of the polyphenols, theaflavins, thearubigins, or any of the other healthful compounds currently found in tea. Burning tea, I would suspect, would most likely destroy or change the chemical structure of these constituents rendering them, at best, harmless but at worst, damaging. I suppose there is the possibility that burning these molecular structures could transform them into some other active biochemical that might have some health benefits, but that needs to be proven. In the meantime, I’m with Adela – I’ll take my tea in liquid form, hot and neat.
Hmmm, maybe I should have said that there aren’t really *any* studies being commissioned on this topic, of any size. I could be wrong, but I didn’t find any mention of this subject in Google’s scholarly-journal search engine.
But yes, it’s a totally wild aspect of green tea consumption that most of us haven’t been aware of!
green tea should be drunk, even starbucks are into green tea.
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/starbucks-green-tea-coffee-kyoto-matcha-latte/
Wow, how interesting! I have wondered about this in the past. Not sure I’d want to do it myself, though. Do you know by any chance which athletes smoke it? You wouldn’t think they would even consider trying it if there was no proof that it was beneficial in any way.
hey..smoking green tea was not that cool, anyway.. it is possible that I did not find the right tea, but I doubt it..
anyway,
BR, vpetkov.
I tried smokin last night. I believe it did have a calmin effect. I shall try it again for further analysis.
Pretty decent to smoke. Makes you calm, and more focused
smoking green tea has a bad flavor to it but i do smoke tea, ive been using Benner brand tea bags regularly. its give a mild calming buzz almost like drink alot of tea. mix with cannabis or other calming herbs. Very pleasant smoke!!
i have been smoking tea since yesterday, i am after hm… i think 5 joints. i have never smoked ANY kind, no cigarettes, no marujiana etc. it is my 1st time and… it’s funny :) less damages (if there are any) and muuuuuuch cheaper ;)
greetings from PL
I smoked it yesterday, b/c I wanted to try it. I smoked out of a home-made bong though and did like 10 bowls, and also smoked yerba mate. I smoked so much b/c otherwise it wouldn’t have had an effect imo. A little while later I had pleasant tingly sensations all through my legs and arms and was super relaxed.
Smoking that much probably wasn’t extremely smart but I wanted to try it.
do you know if it comes up on drug tests
I think that the tingling feeling is the caffeine.
I smoked many times tea…i tried like 10 types of tea but only Strawberry is the best out there!!! take one cigarette and remove tobacco but don’t remove the paper and fill it with strawberry tea so you have filter…
very interesting thoughts…
I am a 22yr ex-smoker that stopped 4 months ago and promised himself since never to introduce a single nanogram of Nicotine in his body… But still would very much enjoy something to smoke something without psychotropic effects and on an exceptional basis. Would green tea be a solution? Sure that I am gonna check that out !
I have smoked green tea for years and the only benefits I have experienced is a calming, relaxed feeling, which is wonderful after a stressfull day after work and I stopped smoking ciggerettes because of that benefit also it suppresed my appetite and I have maintained healthy weight so far. I usually use two pipe full kroger brand green tea. It’s effects may vary from each individual. The calming effect seems to be a very common effect.
i actually tried smoking tea for the first time today. i used a blueberry tea bag and rolled it up in a post-it note. it didn’t really make me feel any different. i also do not believe that there are harmful effects of smoking tea.
i extracted green tea into propylene glycol / vegetable glycerine for use in my electronic cigarette – while im sure *smoking* anything is bad for you, i can feel the calmness without hurting myself!
[…] After a bunch of searching, I found many forums with people asking if it is safe to smoke tea leaves. Some people have tried this and have claimed to feel relaxed after doing so. I even found an article from my friends at TChing: https://tching.com/2009/01/smoking-green-tea-is-it-safe-to-light-up/ […]
Just tried it. wow what an expirience, i was trying not to phych myself int o a placebo but ill try it again somtime to expirament more soon. its very calming.
I smoked a couple of tea joints tonight. For a while I felt a calm, relaxed, happy feeling (only slightly mind you). I think I’ll do it again tomorrow, but I wouldn’t smoke too much of it cause it might give you a headache from all the caffeine.
I am fairly new to this. I am the stereotypical experimental teenager as said in this article. I don’t think that makes my opinion on the matter of any less value however. I am a frequent drinker of Lipton Green Tea with Pomegranate and Cranberry. So it was obviously my choice for smoking. I tried several different methods of this as a kind of experiment I guess you could say.
Here’s what I have found out:
Smoking from rolled papers – Kind of rough, Flavor is almost overwhelming and I personally don’t like the taste of burning paper in the first place.
A metal pipe: The smoke was extremely too HOT, Really harsh on my throat. Also caused me to have a really bad sore throat for a few days after wards.
A water-cooled bong: Very pleasant, very flavorful, it tasted pretty nice, I could even taste the fruit!
The over all effects each time I tried this were:
The first 5-15 minutes – Very pleasantly buzzed, energetic, talkative. I would recommend doing if you have some very unenjoyable house hold task to complete. Haha.
20-30 minutes – I was very relaxed, setting down for this period seemed very appropriate.
Effects throughout – Dry mouth, Calmness, Extreme Focus.
My over all opinion is, Thumbs-up.
Smoked in the right medium its wonderful, very tasty, smooth, etc. The effects are almost like drinking an energy drink and a cup of coffee at the same time (without the calories ha). I would recommend for people trying to quit cigarettes and or other tobacco products. I personally never liked tobacco made me feel ruddy, but this is actually pleasant. I’m not big on drugs, I rarely do Marijuana, but this would be a more positive alternative to both that and tobacco like I said.
Hope this helps.
smoking tea’s awesome!!!!!
I have tried smoking two things.grass out of my back yard and coffee.I think that the coffee was easier to light and gave off more smoke, but it was kinda rough.smoked it out of a joint because I don’t have a bong. The grass left me with bad breath and I had trouble lighting it(yes,I dried it out).should I try green tea?
i tried smoking it right befor i foung this sight well it made me a littlee light headed tasted amazig though green tea.
[…] After a bunch of searching, I found many forums with people asking if it is safe to smoke tea leaves. Some people have tried this and have claimed to feel relaxed after doing so. I even found an article from my friends at TChing: https://tching.com/2009/01/smoking-green-tea-is-it-safe-to-light-up/ […]
I have been smoking green tea for a while now (actually not that long, only about a month) and the only effect i have noticed, is after smoking it i am very relaxed, and almost always go to sleep just after smoking it. I have noticed a slight “high” but it only lasts for about 5 minutes, so i think it might be from just holding my tokes in for so long.