Caffeine Content in Tea

Several times people have asked me if green tea has caffeine in it.  Yes, indeed it does.  All four types of tea have caffeine because it all comes from the same plant:  Camellia Sinensis.

Simple, right?  Not so fast.  There are many factors affecting the caffeine content of your tea.  For more caffeine:

• Use more tea leaves
• Brew it longer
• Steep in hotter water
• Use broken leaves rather than whole leaf tea
• Use straight up tea – not blended with anything else like lemongrass or rosehips
• Drink the Assam variety
• Use younger leaves – so golden tippy tea will have more than a pekoe.
• Use tea from shade grown plants such as Gyokuro (Jade Dew) Japanese green tea
• Drink tea that was harvested in the heat (second flush) and during a dry year

If you want less caffeine do the opposite.

Studies show that  in plants, caffeine works as a natural defense system to fend off insects. That’s why the tender, growing buds and young leaves of tea plants that manufacture the highest amounts of caffeine.  As the leaves age and get tougher the caffeine content drops.

Even though black, green and white teas can all have the same amount of caffeine, green and white teas will end up with less in the cup most of the time because they are brewed at a lower temperature for less time than the as the strong black teas

Breakfast teas (Irish Breakfast, English Breakfast and the like) are quite often made with broken leaves to give you that extra kick in the morning.  Your average tea bag tea is dust or fannings.  These very small pieces will release caffeine very quickly.

So how much caffeine is in my tea?  The answer is that it’s very hard to know without testing each cup in the lab because there are so many variables.  However, here is a table for you because we like charts and graphs!

General Caffeine Content of  Tea and Coffee

table from Choice Organic Teas