What is a reliable source for the caffeine content in tea?

What is a reliable source for the caffeine content in tea? - Crop multiethnic couple with coffee on rainy day

If you do a quick google search for "Tea caffeine content" you may get varied results anywhere from 20mg up to 45 for black tea. I wonder:

  1. Where do all these numbers come from? Are they estimations? Has anyone actually measured caffeine in all tea types?
  2. Is there a reliable source for caffeine content in tea?


Best Answer

TL;DR: (1) they are estimates based on a single sample and (2) No.

In order to pre-determine the exact amount of caffeine in a cup of tea, you would have to know many factors (as Choice Organic Teas says):

  • The exact tea blend and batch you're steeping;
  • The storage age (and conditions) of the leaves;
  • The exact steeping method, including times, temperatures, water source, and steps

While theoretically someone with a really generous research grant could create a giant grid that covered a lot of these factors, nobody (that I can find) has. And the detailed reality is even more complicated than the above list, as factors like "how old was the specific tea bush the leaves came from, and was there a drought at the time" matter.




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What is the source of caffeine in tea?

Caffeine occurs naturally in the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, so all brewed tea contains some caffeine. Hotter water and longer steeping time will draw out more caffeine in brewed tea\u2014think black or oolong tea. Cooler water and shorter steeping time extracts less caffeine\u2014think green or white tea.

What is the best source for caffeine?

Healthier Ways to Get Your CaffeineCaffeine SourcesApproximate Caffeine Content (mg)Latte, regular (1 cup)60Tea, brewed, hot (1 cup)47Nestea Iced Tea, Earl Grey (1 cup)33Cola soda, regular or diet (12 oz)427 more rows

Where can you find caffeine Aside from teas?

Caffeine is an alkaloid occurring naturally in some 60 plant species, of which cocoa beans, kola nuts, tea leaves and coffee beans are the most well-known. Other natural sources of caffeine include yerba mat\xe9, guarana berries, guayusa, and the yaupon holly1.

How can the caffeine content be Analysed in tea?

The content of caffeine was determined by using four different methods: extraction with chloroform, micromethod, method with lead-acetate and high performance liquid chromatography method (HPLC-PDA).



Caffeine in Tea - Facts and Myths




More answers regarding what is a reliable source for the caffeine content in tea?

Answer 2

What you read online are all estimations. It's impossible to determine the exact caffeine content of a cup of tea because:

  1. Everyone applies a different leaf-to-water ratio when steeping tea.
  2. The higher the temperature applied the more caffeine is extracted.
  3. Leaves that consist of more buds, contain more caffeine. However, in practice those teas are often steeped at lower temperatures, resulting in less caffeine.
  4. CTC teas release the most caffeine in the first steep, while with loose leaf, the caffeine extraction is more gradual.
  5. More oxidized teas contain somewhat more caffeine relative to less oxidized teas. Mainly because they're more intensively process, with lower resulting water content left.

So the caffeine values per category are rough estimates, and may vary strongly in practice.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Klaus Nielsen, Marko Klaric, Klaus Nielsen, Sora Shimazaki