Brain-Boosting Tea Blends: Recipes to Enhance Mental Performance

If you're looking to improve cognitive function, you're almost there. You are within a few sips of boosting your brain, enhancing creativity, and finding mental clarity... regardless of what the day throws at you. But the answer isn't coffee!

While a cup of joe is traditionally what we reach for to stay focused and alert, tea is far better. And yes, as a tea-making-company, we are a little biased. But don't take our word for it. Let's explore the science.

This article explores the mental health benefits you can get from various caffeinated and herbal teas, so forget about coffee and put down the gotu kola supplements. There's a far tastier cup that could give your brain a little zest.

Best Tea for Focus

We have selected these teas for their proven health benefits - scientists have discovered that drinking a cup of tea made with one (or more) of these ingredients can enhance memory, improve focus, and help you stay on track even when you're juggling a million tasks.

The perfect tea for your brain might contain caffeine... or it might not. We recommend you try all the teas below to find one that works well with your taste buds. To boost their effects, brew them for as long as you can in hot water to really allow the nutrients to infuse.

P.S. if you've got brain fog, a combination of food, herbal tea and sleep is unbeatable!

Green Tea

Green tea is an ancient brew that known for its grassy, fresh and vibrant flavor... and it's awesome impact on your brain function!

Studies have found that green teas (including matcha tea) are an excellent source of antioxidants, caffeine and the amino acid known as l-theanine. The combination of caffeine and the amino acid L-theanine is a dynamic duo that improves attention, reduces anxiety, and activates working memory.

This makes green tea one of the best teas for improving your focus. It's also worth noting that you won't find l-theanine in other herbs and even other caffeinated teas, like yerba mate. Only teas from the Camellia sinensis tea plant have this focus-enhancing nutrient.

Black Tea

Next up, black tea. Like green tea, a cup of black tea contains both caffeine and l-theanine to improve cognitive function. Depending on the specific type of tea you choose (see our Best Black Tea Guide), black tea often provides more energy than l-theanine thanks to its higher caffeine content.

So, if you like to treat yourself to coffee but want to swap the jittery energy for more alertness and the chance to improve memory and cognition, black tea is a great option. We recommend a ginger-spiced masala chai, which is great with milk and can even be served like a latte to satisfy your Starbucks cravings.

One other reason that black tea is great for focus is that its strong flavor can cover up herbs that your taste buds aren't too happy with, like ginkgo biloba.

Peppermint Tea

Now let's step away from the caffeinated joys of black and green tea to move towards a caffeine-free brew. Peppermint tea, made with the same herb that makes your toothpaste minty fresh, is awesome for mental focus and clarity.

One trial found that peppermint:

"beneficially modulated performance on demanding cognitive tasks and attenuated the increase in mental fatigue associated with extended cognitive task performance in healthy adults."

So, peppermint is a great tea for cognitive function (or just focusing on a meditation). If you'd like to add some caffeine to the mix, the combination of green tea and peppermint is one of our favorites - see Pomegranate Mojito.

Rosemary Tea

Next up, another caffeine-free herb for cognitive function and focus. Unlike peppermint, you might be more familiar with rosemary alongside the likes of garlic, turmeric, oregano and other savory ingredients that could be quite happy in vegetable stock. But you can actually use rosemary as a tea!

Rosemary is a source of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories that could help improve your memory and mood. But as it doesn't contain caffeine, like green tea, rosemary isn't so great for simultaneously boosting your energy levels.

Holy Basil Tea

Holy basil, which is also known as tulsi, is an ayurvedic herb that's used along with ginger and other herbs in Indian traditional medicine. A cup of holy basil tea is said to boost alertness, attention and memory - some studies have found evidence of this, but more research is needed.

If you want to stay super focused with great mental clarity, adding holy basil to your l-theanine-containing teas (like matcha green tea or black tea) could be beneficial.

Lemon Balm Tea

Our final tea is a little zingy like turmeric and fresh like matcha green tea. Enter, lemon balm. The leaves of this herb can be brewed into a caffeine-free cup of tea to boost your mental focus. A review of available literature found that there's clinical evidence of lemon balm's impact on memory, mood and cognition.

While it may not provide the energy of coffee or the creativity of l-theanine, lemon balm is one great tea for focus.

Bagged and Loose Leaf Teas for Your Brain!

If you're ready to choose teas for focus and energy, we've got your back. Explore our range of high-caffeine green tea and black tea blends for a dose of calming and mind-focusing l-theanine today!

Discover Zest Tea.