What Makes Kucha Different From Other Tea Plants

When it comes to tea, green, black, and red teas seem to get all the attention. And it’s not unwarranted, as these teas are well known for their many documented health benefits, including energy, metabolism support, antioxidant support, stress relief, and more.

However, there’s a lesser-known tea variety that offers similar benefits: kucha.

The kucha tea plant (Camellia assamica var. kucha) comes from the Yunnan province of China, where it’s been domesticated and used medicinally for well over two millennia.

Technically a mutant version of the wild pu’er tea plant, indigenous peoples use kucha tea to treat viral infections like colds and flus. There are actually still several 1000+ year-old kucha tea trees still alive and used to this day.

There are two nootropic compounds in the kucha plant that are either not found in other varieties of tea leaves or aren’t found in the same concentration in other tea leaves. These are theacrine and methylliberine. And while at first these might look just like their caffeine counterpart, they’re much more than that.

Is Theacrine Different than Regular Caffeine?

Both theacrine and caffeine are nootropics, and both work to provide the body with an energy boost. Structurally, they’re very similar, too. In fact, for a long time it was thought that theacrine’s benefits were inextricable from caffeine.

It’s only recently been discovered that’s not the case. But now we know theacrine’s benefits can be experienced without caffeine, although they work better together.

As a purine alkaloid, theacrine’s energy boost is described as more even than caffeine’s, and it’s supposed to last longer, too. That’s because its half-life in the body is longer, which means it peaks about 3-4 hours in and its total effects last around 8 hours.

This is opposed to caffeine, which spikes at 30 min to 1 hour and loses discernible effects after 3-4 hours, even though it stays in your system for 8 or more. 

Caffeine activates your stress response system to mobilize energy, which is why you feel stressed, jittery, and clammy, and why you’re left feeling crashed after.

Theacrine, on the other hand, may promote the production of neurotransmitters involved in motivation and focus while suppressing those involved in fatigue signaling, which can result in an optimal combination of increased energy and increased calm. We typically associate being relaxed with being low energy, but theacrine says that isn’t our only reality.

How Methylliberine Supports Steadier Focus

The other notable nootropic in the kucha tea plant is methylliberine. It may promote mood, focus, and attention by working complementarily with theacrine.

Caffeine blocks fatigue signals completely, which is why it’s a spike-and-drop type of energy boost. We know theacrine instead gently pulls fatigue signaling back while pushing motivation signaling to the front, which is why you’re not tired. 

Methylliberine, then, is thought to act only as a modulator of fatigue signaling, meaning instead of blocking tiredness, it staves it off for a long period of time. In addition, methylliberine supports the signaling of two key neurotransmitters for energy, focus, and mood, which can promote its own version of increased energy and alertness and decreased stress response. 

This is the vital difference between caffeine and the kucha compounds: the sustained energy they promote is bolstered by sustained support for mood and stress. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to continue relying on excessive caffeine for energy.

Not only is it a less healthy kind of energy, but it’s also empty, temporary, and comes with drawbacks like tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal.

Clinical Evidence for Key Kucha Compounds

While research on theacrine and methylliberine is relatively young, the fact that we already know consuming tea is safe means that clinical studies in humans have progressed quickly. Three recent evidentiary highlights for these two kucha-sourced nootropics include:

A 2020 study of the health benefits of theacrine saw it act as an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory compound that promotes muscle/motor function, reduces fatigue, improves cognitive performance, improves mood, supports liver function, and even inhibits metastasis of breast cancer cells.

A 2020 study on the safety of methylliberine observed that it can improve several physiological markers of cardiovascular health, including lowered resting heart rate, increased levels of HDL (good cholesterol), and lowered LDL (bad cholesterol). As well, the energizing effect of methylliberine was not accompanied by a heart rate or blood pressure spike.

Studies from 2014 and 2015 saw supplements containing theacrine and methylliberine improve subjective measures of energy and mood while reducing fatigue. This may largely be due to the synergistic function of taking both theacrine and methylliberine, as theacrine’s long-term benefits are likely sparked methylliberine’s more immediate ones.

In all, the mounting evidence supports the claims that theacrine and methylliberine improve energy, focus, attention, and mood while producing a stress-relieving/calming effect by acting on the neurochemical systems associated with motivation, mood, memory, and cognition.

Is There Kucha Tea in MTE?

No, there’s not. We just really like kucha tea and are always rooting for a healthy option. But there is something else from the kucha plant in MTE: paraxanthine!

Paraxanthine is the major metabolite of caffeine responsible for about 80% of its byproducts when it’s broken down in the liver.

Instead of pushing stress signals or stifling relaxation vibes, paraxanthine gently boosts energy, mood, focus, and cognition by modulating wakefulness chemicals without signaling a stress response and overloading the adrenals. Studies have shown that it’s more effective and safer than caffeine:

• 2010: Paraxanthine’s wakefulness effects are equal to or greater than caffeine but do not cause a crash, sleep rebound, or anxiety. And unlike caffeine, paraxanthine didn’t have mutagenic effects at high doses.
• 2021: Paraxanthine improved memory, attention span, cognition, and reasoning even at low doses and demonstrated no negative side effects.
• 2022: Paraxanthine improved fitness, muscle function, and stamina better than l-theanine and taurine, as well as lowered cholesterol.
• 2023: Paraxanthine didn’t demonstrate harmful effects at high doses compared to caffeine and may also protect the liver, kidneys, cholesterol levels, and calcium levels.
• 2024: Paraxanthine increased energy, metabolism, and thermogenesis without raising blood pressure or heart rate.

MTE’s advanced blend of adaptogens, nootropics, and superfoods is powered by paraxanthine.

It’s an evolution in energy: a daily wellness drink for stress, focus, productivity, mood, recovery, and more, with a benefits list longer than its ingredients list. Oh, and don’t forget the quality testing.