Green Tea Afternoons: The Small Ritual That Changes the Whole Rest of Your Day

There exists a moment, between the two and the four of the afternoon, in which the body asks for a pause. Not the coffee, which agitates. Not the biscuit full of sugar, which gives you energy for twenty minutes and then abandons you. No. What the body truly asks for is a warm cup, a silence of ten minutes, and the green tea. This is the afternoon of green tea: not a trend, not a fashion of the social networks, but a gesture ancient that returns to make sense in our days full of noise.

And the beautiful thing is this: one does not need to be an expert, one does not need to buy objects expensive, one does not need to change the entire life. It is sufficient to understand some simple things, and the afternoon transforms itself.

Why the Afternoon Is the Hour Most Honest

The morning we survive it. We run, we answer to messages, we do the things in automatic mode. The evening we are already tired and we think only at the sofa. But the afternoon — the afternoon is that time in which the body speaks clearly.

What happens in concrete terms? After the lunch, the sugar in the blood (which is the glucose, that is the fuel of our cells) goes up, and then, after circa two hours, it goes down. And when it goes down too fast, or it goes down too much, one feels that heaviness behind the eyes, that desire to close everything and to sleep. The Italians call it “the abbiocco,” and it is not laziness. It is the chemistry of the body that says: “Please, give me something gentle.”

The green tea answers to this request in a way that is almost perfect. It has a little of caffeine — much less than the coffee — and so it does not give the tremor. It has theanine, which is a substance that relaxes the mind without making you sleepy. And it has the catechins, which are like small guardians that help the cells to use the sugar in the blood with more calm, without peaks and without falls.

One does not need to remember these names. It is sufficient to know: the green tea in the afternoon gives you a lift gentle, without the crash after.

How to Prepare It Without Making Errors (Because Yes, Errors Are Possible)

Here, this is the part in which many persons get wrong, and then they say “the green tea is bitter, it does not please me.” But the bitterness is not the fault of the tea. It is the fault of the water too hot, or of the infusion too long.

The rules are three, and they are simple also for a child:

• The water : do not make it boil. When you see the first small bubbles at the bottom of the pot, you turn off. We speak of circa 70–80 degrees. If you do not have a thermometer, the trick is this: you boil the water, you wait two minutes with the lid open, and then you pour.
• The time : two, maximum three minutes. You put the timer of the phone. If you leave it five minutes, the tannins come out, and the tea becomes bitter like a medicine. Nobody wants to drink a medicine at the four of the afternoon.
• The quantity : one teaspoon of leaves for one cup. If you use the little bags (the filters), one is sufficient. Do not squeeze the bag at the end, because you press out the bitterness.

And a thing that seems small but it is not: use a cup that pleases you. A cup with a nice color, that you keep only for this moment. It seems a foolishness, but the brain registers the gesture, and the pause becomes real.

What Happens Inside You, Explained So That Also Your Nephew Understands

Imagine that your body is a house with many rooms, and the glucose is the electricity that arrives from outside. If the electricity arrives all together, in a single wave, the fuses jump. If it arrives too little, the lights go off. What you need is a flow constant, regular.

The green tea helps this flow to remain stable. It does not do miracles, intend me. But the catechins slow down a little the passage of the sugar from the intestine to the blood, and so the wave arrives more gentle. You do not have the peak, you do not have the fall. You have a line more or less straight.

Now, for the persons who pay particular attention to this theme — perhaps because in the family there is a history of glucose not perfectly stable, or simply because one wants to take care of the body before that the problems arrive — it makes sense to think at the afternoon ritual in a complete way. Not only the tea, but also a support to the mechanism of the glucose.

For example, there are integrations formulated exactly for this: to help the body to maintain the levels of glucose in a range healthy, without forcing, without substituting to anything. Glycorium is one of these — a dietary supplement thought for the support of the glucose metabolism, with ingredients that work together with the same logic of the green tea: gentle, constant, without violence on the organism. It is not a medicine, it is not a cure. It is a companion of the daily habits.

If one is curious to understand better what is inside, how it works, for whom it is indicated, the information is found at Glycorium.biz, where the composition is explained in clear mode, without words complicated.

The point is this: the afternoon of green tea is not only the cup. It is the decision to take care of the glucose, of the energy, of the head, in one single moment. And if to the cup you associate a support sensible, the ritual becomes more complete.

The Ritual in Practice: How to Build It in a Real Life

Not all the afternoons are free. Not all the persons work from the house. And so, how does one does in concrete?

Here there are some suggestions tested, not theories:

The important thing is not the duration. It is the regularity. The body learns the ritual. After one week, at the two and a half, he starts to ask it. And you will see that the afternoon changes color.

Small Errors to Avoid, Because I Have Made Them All

• Do not drink the green tea at the six of the evening. The caffeine is little, but it exists. If you are sensitive, after the five it is better to pass to an infusion without theine.
• Do not add sugar. I know, the first times it seems strange. But after three days the palate changes, and you start to feel the sweetness natural of the leaves. If you cannot resist, a little of honey, but really little.
• Do not buy the teas at the supermarket that cost one euro for twenty bags. They are dust, not leaves. You spend two euros more in a shop of tea, and the difference is enormous. Also the body feels the difference.
• Do not transform the ritual in another task of the list. If one day you do not have time, you skip. You do not feel guilty. The ritual must remain a pleasure, not a duty.

A Final Thought, Honest

The green tea afternoons are not a solution to the stress, to the work too much, to the life that runs. Nobody says this. But they are a small door. A moment in which you say to yourself: “Now I stop. Now I take care of me. Now I drink this cup and I do nothing else.”

And if in this pause you insert also a attention in more to the glucose, to the energy, to the balance of the body — with the tea, with the alimentation, with a supplement as Glycorium if it seems opportune to you after having read the information — then the pause becomes a act of respect toward yourself.

Not a revolution. Only a cup. Only an afternoon. But done with intention.

And this, in the end, is enough.