The effects of tea on psychophysiological stress responsivity and post-stress recovery: a randomised double-blind trial
Daily cups of tea will help you recover far more quickly from the stresses of everyday life, that is according to a new study by UCL (University College London) scientists. New evidence has shown that black tea has an effect on stress hormone levels in the body.
This study, published in the journal “Psychopharmacology”, found out that people who drink tea are able to de-stress more quickly than those who drink a fake tea substitute. In addition, the study participants drinking a black tea concoction four times a day for six weeks had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood after a stressful event, in comparison to a control group who drank the fake or placebo teas for the same period of time. 
In the study, 75 young male regular tea drinkers were split into two seperate groups and monitored for six weeks. All gave up their normal tea, coffee and other caffeinated beverages, one group was given a fruit flavored caffeinated tea mixture comprised of the constituents of an average cup of black tea. The other control group was given a caffeinated placebo identical in taste, but without any of the active tea ingredients. All drinks were tea colored, but designed to mask some of the normal sensory clues one can associate with tea (such as smell, taste and familiarity of the brew), to eliminate confounding factors such as the ‘comforting’ effect of drinking a cup of tea.
