Julian
Many thanks for guidance towards your theanine data - I had not seen
that source.

Yes, "theine" was the old 19th century name for caffeine in tea as it
was "mateine" in mate, before they realized it was all the same
chemical. There should be no old book references to the tea specific
amino acid "theanine" as, as far as I can find, it was not discovered
in tea until 1949.

Nigel at Teacraft


On Jan 20, 8:46*pm, juliantai > wrote:

> By the way I have been reading some old English tea books which use
> the word "theine" - I get utterly confused whether it means theanine
> or caffeine (they describe theaine as stimulating).