So, if you are using loose leaf tea, then you can choose to brew fewer leaves for a reduced caffeine content.Īnd if you want a really strong, highly caffeinated tea, then you just use more tea leaves. This may be common sense to you, but the more tea leaves you have steeping in your cup, then the higher the caffeine level of your cup of tea. There is more than one way that tea is processed, and that processing method affects caffeine levels.įor teas that resemble a fine powder, like matcha, the tea leaves have been ground up so that when you drink the tea you are consuming the entire leaf.Īnd that results in more caffeine in your cup of tea.įor teas where you have whole leaves, the caffeine content is lower due to you not actually consuming the leaves when you drink a loose leaf tea. This is because the early harvest time means that the leaves and buds are smaller, and that equals more caffeine. Spring-harvested teas tend to have higher caffeine levels. The Harvest TimeĪnother factor that you likely never spare a thought for is the harvest time of the tea plant. Shade-grown tea plants, like matcha, Gyokuro and Kabusecha, are higher in caffeine than tea plants that are not shaded. Though it’s likely not something that you’ve ever thought about, the growing practices of the tea influence it’s caffeine levels. assamica variety naturally have more caffeine. Now here’s what’s really crazy about this – tea leaves from the camellia sinensis var.

The first variety comes primarily from China and the second primarily from India. The first thing you need to know about tea varietals is that all tea comes from the same plant, but that plant has two varietals that the tea leaves may come from. Of course, this means that you can effectively reduce the amount of caffeine in your daily cuppa simply by reducing the brew time. Brew TimeĪs mentioned above, the longer that you leave that tea bag (or loose tea) to steep, then the more caffeine you end up with in your cup of tea. Now that I’ve blown your mind, let’s take a closer look at all of the things that affect the amount of caffeine in your cup of tea. This means that theoretically you could steep black tea for so long that it ends up having a caffeine content similar to a cup of brewed coffee.Īnd that’s just madness right there! Factors That Affect Caffeine Content In Tea Let’s say you brew some black tea for only one minute while you brew some white tea for five minutes – that cup of white tea will have more caffeine than that cup of black tea. I know what you’re thinking – this goes against everything you know about caffeinated teas. What really matters is the brew time, or how long you leave that tea bag in the water to steep.īrew time has more effect on a tea’s caffeine content than the type of tea.

Obviously, that was an incorrect assumption, as I’m about to explain to you. How much caffeine if you reuse a tea bag? Everything You Know About Caffeine In Tea Is Wrongīefore I started researching the caffeine amounts in tea for health reasons, I just always assumed that black tea was the highest no matter what.

Highly caffeinated tea