Tuesday 11 October 2011

caffeine in green tea

a very green path to Weimar


I've made a point of writing this blog partially for people new to tea drinking or curious about tea.  Periodically, someone will ask me a question, whether it's in my daily life or on twitter, and I assume that others are wondering the same thing and just not asking.

So earlier this evening @allisonjp asked me, 'Is there caffeine in green tea?'


Let me be very clear on this one (it's important for a couple of reasons)...there is definitely caffeine in green tea.  Definitely.  Yes.

Why is he making such a big deal about this?


Because there's a lot of misinformation out there about caffeine and tea.

Some examples of things that're absolutely NOT TRUE:

Most of the caffeine comes out of the tea in the first steeping.  After you've steeped the tea once, it's safely decaffeinated (This is completely false.  There might be less caffeine the second or third time around while steeping a tea, but it's not without caffeine).

Green tea and/or white tea doesn't have caffeine (Again...no way.  Don't believe it).

I've read a few reliable studies about how much caffeine is in different sorts of tea, and at some point I'll blog more thoroughly about it.

In the meantime if you don't have a problem with caffeine, enjoy that green tea.  With all of its delicious caffeine.





2 comments:

  1. Thanks for setting the record straight! It's interesting to watch the industry as a whole grapple with this topic.

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  2. Yes this make sense. Green tea is just regular tea after all.

    Another thing I read is that the health benefits of green tea are also present in black tea - as long as you don't add milk.

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