Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea

Tea is the world’s most popular beverage. Dive into a cup of tea with a chemist and discover the rich molecular brew that can be extracted from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Tea contains over a hundred different chemical compounds which contribute to its colour, taste and scent – and its stimulating effects. The best-known is caffeine, but how does caffeine end up in tea and how can you get it out?

Beginning with the leaves, Steeped explores the chemistry behind different styles of tea, from green teas to pu-erh. It tackles the age-old question of when, or even whether, to add milk. And it puts the chemistry to use with advice on how to brew a better cup.

Michelle Francl is the Frank B. Mallory Professor of Chemistry at Bryn Mawr College and an Adjunct Scholar of the Vatican Observatory. She is a quantum chemist who has worked in areas ranging from the development of methods for computational chemistry to the structures of topologically intriguing molecules. Her essays on science, culture and policy have appeared in Nature Chemistry and Slate as well as in a number of essay collections. She was elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2009 and is the 2019 recipient of the ACS Philadelphia Section Award. She gives occasional workshops on writing for scientists.