Green Chai

Four spices, one green base, and a caffeine level of 2 on our 0–3 scale: that is green chai as the catalog describes it. It brews at 85 °C for 4 minutes with 2.5 g per cup, tastes spiced, vegetal and sweet, and sits in the mid-morning and early-afternoon slots. Nothing on this page claims an effect on the body: what follows is composition, custom, and what two European regulators have published about caffeine, green tea catechins and ginger.

The European Food Safety Authority's 2015 opinion on caffeine states that single doses up to 200 mg and habitual intakes up to 400 mg per day do not raise safety concerns for healthy adults, that intakes from all sources up to 200 mg per day do not raise safety concerns for the fetus in pregnant women, and that it proposes 3 mg per kg of body weight per day as a safety level for habitual consumption by children and adolescents. Our catalog does not measure milligrams per cup: it rates green chai at level 2, the same step as its green tea base, because the spices add aroma and nothing to the caffeine count.

Source: EFSA — Scientific Opinion on the safety of caffeine (2015)

Like every green tea, the base of this blend contains catechins, the polyphenols behind its astringency, with EGCG the most abundant. We list them as composition, not as a benefit. The one thing we repeat about them is a safety assessment: in April 2018 the European Food Safety Authority concluded that catechins from green tea infusions and similar drinks are generally safe, estimated the average daily EGCG intake from traditional green tea infusions at 90 to 300 mg, and flagged that catechin doses at or above 800 mg per day, the territory of concentrated food supplements rather than cups of tea, may pose health concerns. A green chai is an infusion, and a spiced one at that: the spices dilute the leaf, so the cup lands at the low end of what plain green tea gives.

Source: EFSA — Green tea catechins: safety assessment (2018)

The European Union herbal monograph on ginger rhizome, revised by the EMA's Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products in May 2025, recognizes one well-established use, the prevention of nausea and vomiting in motion sickness with 1–2 g of powdered rhizome taken an hour before travel, and lists traditional uses, among them the symptomatic treatment of mild, spasmodic gastrointestinal complaints including bloating and flatulence, at 0.18–1 g of powder three times daily. Those figures describe powdered ginger and tinctures taken as medicines, not the pinch of dried ginger steeped in a cup of green chai, and the monograph does not cover spice blends at all, so we claim nothing for this cup. It also notes that use under 18 is not recommended for those indications, that it is preferable to avoid use during pregnancy as a precaution, that stomach upset, belching, heartburn and nausea are common undesirable effects, and that no interactions are known. This isn't medical advice — if you have a specific condition, check with a healthcare provider.

Source: EMA/HMPC — EU herbal monograph on Zingiber officinale, rhizoma, Rev. 1 (2025)

The green tea base carries the amino acid L-theanine, part of the savory sweetness tasters describe in green tea, and the spices carry the aromatic compounds that name them: cineole in cardamom, cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon, eugenol in cloves. This page lists all of them as components of the cup and nothing more. The reason the blend is drunk mid-morning and early afternoon is the catalog's reason, caffeine at level 2 and a warming flavor, not an effect we promise.