Want to get creative? Try a cup of tea

A SIMPLE cup of tea sparks an instant burst of brainpower and creativity, a study has found.

Within minutes of downing a brew, volunteers scored better results in creative and cognition tests than those who had drunk a glass of water, researchers said.

The findings suggest it could be the antidote to everything, from writer’s block to artists looking for inspiration during brainstorming sessions.

Although tea contains caffeine and theanine, both associated with increased attentiveness and alertness, these do not usually take effect instantly.

Instead, researchers believe tea works to enhance and create a positive mood which in turn sparks the brain’s cognitive regions into life.

In tests for the specialist journal Food Quality Preference, Yan Huang of Peking University’s School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences conducted two tests on up to 50 students, with an average age of 23.

Half were given a cup of black tea to drink and the other half a glass of water, before immediately going into one of two different tests.

The first asked them to make an “attractive and creative” design out of building blocks and the second asked them to come up with a “cool” name for a new noodle restaurant.

Their results were judged by other, non-participating, students for creativity and design and marked on a

‘A positive mood sparks the brain’s cognitive regions into life’

scale by the researchers.

In the block building test, the tea drinkers scored 6.54 points against 6.03 points for the water drinkers. In the name test, the tea drinkers scored 4.11 against 3.78.

The results show that tea helped both divergent thinking, the process of coming up with a number of new ideas around a central theme, and what most people would consider to define creativity.

The report said: “This work contributes to understanding the function of tea on creativity… tea is a ‘mood enhancer’ and this may have been why it worked so well.”