The Caffeine in Tea

Caffeine is one of the two main chemical compounds found in tea. The other main chemical compounds are tannins. Caffeine stimulates our central nervous system and large muscle groups. Did you know that caffeine dilates your blood vessels? In hot climates, it is this dilation of your blood vessels that gives your body a cooling effect. 

The caffeine in tea has been found to actually aid your brain functionality. 

Caffeine increases your metabolism, increases your heart rate and in large quantities can be extremely toxic for you. Side effects can include sleeplessness, irritability (go without your morning cup of tea or coffee to experience this) nervousness and has also found to cause mental confusion. Caffeine can also aid in speeding up the movement of wastes found in your body.

The caffeine in a cup of tea can vary greatly. There is minimal difference, chemically, between the caffeine found in tea and the caffeine you consume in a cup of coffee. In stark contrast though, the caffeine found in tea doesn't have the same negative effect on your heart and circulatory system as the caffeine in coffee does. 

Steep your tea for approx. 3 minutes - for a stimulating effect
Steep your tea for approx. 5 minutes - for a more calming effect 

The caffeine in tea has been found to actually aid your brain functionality and to promote the blood flow to it. By acting on the central nervous system, the caffeine found in a cup of tea targets directly the brain areas that control our thoughts and feelings. If you have a lot of concentration, thought processes and mental work to do we suggest you grab yourself that nice big cup of tea. 

Below is a general guide to the amounts of caffeine found in a 5oz/150ml cup of tea or coffee. The cups we use today are generally larger than the measurement of 5oz/150ml, which used to be a standard. 

In a 5oz/150ml cup of Tea --------------------- Caffeine present
Black Tea - leaf or teabag, brewed 1 minute........9-33mg
Black Tea - leaf, brewed 3 minutes.....................50-46mg
Black Tea - teabag, brewed 5 minutes................46-108mg
Oolong Tea - leaf, brewed 5 minutes...................12-55mg
Green Tea - leaf, brewed 3 minutes.....................8-16mg
Instant Tea 8oz..................................................12-28mg
Iced Tea 120z can..............................................22-36mg
Decaffeinated Tea..............................................4mg
Herbal Tea.........................................................none

In a a 5oz/150ml cup of Coffee ----------------- Caffeine present
Drip Coffee.........................................................110-150mg
Percolated Coffee...............................................64-124mg
Instant Coffee....................................................40-108mg
Decaffeinated Coffee.........................................less than 5mg 

The amount of caffeine found in a cup of tea can vary according to what type of tea it is, where the tea was grown, its' manufactured processes and the brewing times and methods used. Due to fermentation processes, Black and Oolong Teas contain more caffeine than Green Teas. Similiar sorts of variations occur when discussing the amount of caffeine that is found in a cup of coffee or in an amount of coffee beans.

In general, you would have to drink 2 or 3 cups of cups of tea per day to equal the amount of caffeine found in a single cup of coffee because you need less tea leaves than coffee beans per cup. The smaller the tea leaf, the quicker the caffeine infuses from the tea leaves into your water.

How to Decaffeinate your Tea

To reduce the amount of caffeine in your cup of tea the simplest way is to reduce the length of time that you steep the tea leaves in the water.

To further reduce the caffeine, try brewing your tea in your teapot for the minimal amount of time and then removing the tea leaves immediately from your teapot or strain your tea immediately into another pre-heated teapot. This will in effect halt the further infusion of caffeine into your tea.