How Much Caffeine is in Tea?

All true tea comes from a single plant, Camellia sinensis. Green, Oolong, Black and White tea varieties all come from this plant and all contain caffeine. Herbal teas can come from any other plant that is not Camellia sinensis and most do not contain caffeine. One exception is Yerba Mate, a South American herb that naturally contains caffeine.

Biologist believe that all caffeine in plants work as a natural defense system to deter insects and other herbivores with its bitter taste and stimulating qualities. It’s the growing buds and young leaves of tea plants that create the highest amounts of caffeine.

What determines caffeine levels?
Factors such as the growing region, plant varietal, plant age, leaf age, length of the growing season, field conditions, soil nutrients, and rainfall can influence how much caffeine is in plucked tea leaves.

How the tea is prepared also plays an important role in how much caffeine makes it into your cup. Factors including the amount of tea used, water temperature, brewing time, or how the leaves are steeped, all contribute to caffeine levels.

Given these variables, we have determined a general range in milligrams (mg) based on our tea collection. You can visit our individual product pages to find out the exact amount of caffeine in your Choice Organics tea.

By comparison, coffee contains 90 mg of caffeine per 8 oz serving.

What about our Organic Decaffeinated teas?
Our decaffeination process uses the only approved method for certified organic teas, an all-natural process that removes a majority of the caffeine by pressurized CO2. This preserves the botanical compounds and unique flavor notes of the tea leaves. Our Organic Decaffeinated Earl Grey tea and Organic Decaffeinated English Breakfast tea still contain trace amounts of caffeine, approximately 4 mg.

Looking to decrease the caffeine in your caffeinated tea? Caffeine is released immediately, while the flavor releases over minutes, so you can use this little trick to slightly reduce the caffeine in your tea. Simply brew the tea in hot water for a few moments and discard the water, re-brewing the tea in freshly boiled water as normal.

For those who need to avoid caffeine altogether, we recommend our Organic Herbal teas.