Black tea and green tea are some of the most popular teas in the world. Thousands of cups are consumed daily! It’s only right to compare these two especially with the focus on caffeine.
Many have been asking what’s the caffeine difference between black tea and green tea? Well, we’re here to answer your question!
Before we begin diving into the details of the caffeine content between green tea and black tea, we’ll have to establish some standards disclaimers. In this article alone we’ll reference only loose leaf black tea and loose leaf green tea. We can touch upon the caffeine content within black tea bags and green tea bags but we believe it’s more important to focus on loose leaf tea.
Plus, who doesn’t like loose leaf teas anyways?
They’re higher quality leaves, more flavorful, and have more benefits than tea bags! Feel free to read the difference between tea bags and loose leaf tea if you’re interested.
Okay, let’s begin!
How Much Caffeine is in Loose Leaf Black Tea?
Loose leaf black tea (one of our favorite teas) typically has about 40 to 130 mg of caffeine in 1 cup.
Now you might be thinking that the caffeine content of anything more than 100 mg is a lot. But let’s break this down for you and put it into perspective.
How does black tea caffeine compare to something that has even more caffeine, like coffee?
Typically, in any cup of coffee (8 ounces), you’re looking to consume about anywhere between 150 and 400 mg of caffeine. This applies to your instant coffee at home or a cup of joe from your neighborhood Starbucks. Believe it or not, there are cups of coffee that will give you that boost of 400 mg of caffeine (possibly more), now that’s a lot!
If you’re interested, there’s actually a company by the name of Death Wish Coffee that will give you upwards of 700 mg of caffeine. We’d be off the walls with that much caffeine, what about you? Let us know if you’ve tried this before.
Don’t need that much caffeine?
You can definitely try some of these more mellow black teas here: Davidsons Tea or Vahdam (this one is our favorite this month).
How Much Caffeine is in Loose Leaf Green Tea?
Loose leaf green tea (another one of our favorites) generally will have a lower amount of caffeine than black tea. And definitely a lot less caffeine than your “world’s strongest cup of coffee.”
We still can’t imagine drinking that much caffeine in one sitting…
In any one cup of green tea, you’re looking to have about 15 to 70 mg of caffeine. Now that’s a bit more modest and relaxing, right? With 1 cup of green tea every morning you’ll feel relaxed and full of focus.
Usually, green tea releases caffeine and absorbs into your body slower than your typical energy drinks or coffee. This is key to avoiding the caffeine crash that you might feel after drinking a 5-hour energy or something similar.
Drink our favorites. Stash Tea, Ocha Co., and Numi.
What Determines the Caffeine Levels in Loose Leaf Tea?
Almost all teas are first processed from the Camellia sinensis plant. To put it into perspective, this plant is used to produce green teas, black teas, oolong teas, herbal teas, and more.
Let’s just say this plant is the jack of all teas.
Each Type of Tea Contains Different Caffeine Levels
All teas have some amount of caffeine whether it’s 10 mg or upwards of 100 mg. The amount differs based on what tea you’re drinking in.
For example, we mentioned green tea has a lower caffeine amount than black tea. This is the same as any other tea leaves. Here’s a quick breakdown of the most popular teas and their caffeine levels.
- Green Tea – 15-70 mg
- Black Tea – 40-130 mg
- Oolong Tea – 20-40 mg
- Jasmine Tea – 20-45 mg
- White Tea – 5-30 mg
- Earl Grey Tea – 25-60 mg
Click any one of those above links to learn how to make that tea into bubble tea!
Does Steeping Tea Longer Release More Caffeine?
Yes.
Another way to think about it is the darker the tea (like black tea) the more caffeine content it contains. Why is this though?
Generally, you have to steep loose leaf tea leaves in order to bring out the tea. During this chemical process of steeping, the longer you steep your tea the more caffeine is produced. This is part of the reason why you’ll find that lighter teas are less caffeinated. And darker teas are more caffeinated.
Different Tea Blends and How They Affect the Caffeine Amount in Tea
Sometimes tea is blended with other types of loose leaf teas too, which change the level of caffeine significantly.
Here’s an example. A very popular tea blend in British culture with all sorts of black tea is the English Breakfast blend. This black tea blend consists of different types of black tea from Assam, Kenya, and Ceylon.
These locations or tea regions are far from each other around the world. So more than likely they’re processed differently too. With their different processes, caffeine levels are also different.
We hope we answered your question about the difference in caffeine levels between black tea and green tea. If not, please let us know what else you want to know about these two teas!
If you want to stick around more, have a look at what boba recipes you can create at home with black tea or green tea (matcha tea too).
And if you haven’t already (surprised that you haven’t) join more than 45000 boba lovers here, the community we have built is so strong! Don’t miss out on the boba fun!
We’ll catch you on the next one, like always talk about boba, duh!
Find the best black tea and green tea below!
