Does Green Tea Have Caffeine? Everything You Need to Know
Yes. All green tea made from the Camellia sinensis plant contains caffeine naturally. Nobody adds it: the plant makes it as a defence against insects. How much you get varies a lot, though, depending on the type of green tea, how it's processed, where it's grown, and how you brew it.
How Much Caffeine Is in Green Tea?
A typical 250ml cup of brewed green tea has 25 to 50mg of caffeine, roughly half what the same amount of coffee gives you (usually 80 to 100mg). The exact amount depends on the tea:
- Matcha: You drink the whole leaf as a powder, not an infusion, so a serving gives you 60 to 80mg. Gyokuro, a shade-grown Japanese green tea high in theanine, can reach 120 to 140mg.
- Standard brewed green tea: 25 to 45mg per cup, depending on the leaf grade and brewing time.
- High-altitude whole-leaf green tea from Nepal's Ilam region: about the same as standard brewed green tea, but with more L-theanine, which softens the effect of the caffeine.
- Hojicha and kukicha: roasted or stem-heavy teas that lose much of their caffeine during roasting, leaving 15 to 25mg per cup.
How L-Theanine Changes the Effect of Caffeine
L-theanine is the main thing that sets tea apart from coffee as a source of caffeine. It's an amino acid found almost only in Camellia sinensis. It crosses the blood-brain barrier and promotes calm alertness: it raises alpha brain wave activity, which is linked to relaxed focus, and it dampens the cortisol spike caffeine can trigger.
In practice, green tea makes you alert and focused without the jittery edge coffee can give you. That's why many people describe the feeling as "calm clarity" more than stimulation.
High-altitude teas usually have more L-theanine than teas grown lower down, because the leaf grows more slowly at altitude and builds up more of it. Our Floral Green Tea and Organic Light Green Tea are both grown above 5,500+ feet in Nepal's Ilam region, and that higher ratio of theanine to caffeine is what makes them such a smooth source of energy.
What Changes the Caffeine in Your Cup
Water temperature: Hotter water pulls out caffeine faster and more completely. Brewing green tea at 75 to 80°C, below boiling, gives you less caffeine than 90°C water and also avoids the bitterness that too-hot water causes.
Steeping time: The longer you steep, the more caffeine you get. A 90-second steep at 75°C extracts much less caffeine than a 3-minute steep, and the tea is less astringent too.
Second infusion: Most of the caffeine comes out in the first steep. A second steep of the same leaves has perhaps 20 to 30% of the original caffeine, with most of the flavour still there.
Cold brewing: Cold water extracts caffeine more slowly and less completely, so cold-brewed green tea (12 hours in the fridge) has much less caffeine than the same tea brewed hot.
Is There Caffeine-Free Green Tea?
Not naturally. Anything made from Camellia sinensis leaves contains caffeine, because the plant itself does. "Decaf" green tea has been chemically processed to remove caffeine, and it always keeps trace amounts. For a completely caffeine-free drink, choose an herbal infusion like chamomile, rooibos, or peppermint, though strictly speaking these aren't teas.
Who Should Choose a Lower-Caffeine Option?
If you're sensitive to caffeine, pregnant, sleep badly, or want tea in the evening, your options are cold-brewed green tea, a short steep at a low temperature, or white tea (15 to 30mg per cup). Our Fresh White Tea and Floral White Tea are usually the lowest-caffeine choices among true teas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does green tea have more or less caffeine than black tea?
Less. Black tea usually has 40 to 70mg per cup and green tea 25 to 45mg. Both have much less than coffee (80 to 100mg).
Can I drink green tea at night?
That depends on how sensitive you are to caffeine. For most people, one cup of green tea in the early evening (before 7pm) doesn't noticeably affect sleep. If you're sensitive, switch to white tea or an herbal infusion after 5pm.
Does steeping twice reduce caffeine enough to matter?
Yes. The second steep has roughly 20 to 30% of the first steep's caffeine. If you want to cut caffeine but keep the flavour, a short first steep (poured away or drunk separately) followed by a longer second steep works well.
Why does high-altitude green tea feel smoother than supermarket green tea?
There are two reasons. It has more L-theanine, which takes the edge off the caffeine, and whole-leaf processing releases fewer bitter tannins when you steep it. Together they give a noticeably smoother cup at the same caffeine level.
Is matcha stronger than loose leaf green tea?
Yes, much stronger. Matcha is the whole leaf ground into powder, so you take in all of its caffeine (and all of its L-theanine), not only what infuses into the water. A serving gives 60 to 80mg or more, which is close to a cup of coffee.
