Loose leaf teas and brass spoon on wood

Tea Caffeine Levels by Type: The Complete mg Chart

A typical 8-ounce cup of black tea contains about 40 to 70 mg of caffeine. Green tea runs lower, around 15 to 45 mg. White tea sits close to green at 15 to 35 mg, and oolong lands in between at 30 to 50 mg. Matcha contains more caffeine than brewed teas because you consume the whole powdered leaf, typically from a small measured serving. Decaf tea isn’t zero. It typically retains 2 to 5 mg per cup. True herbal tisanes, since they contain no actual tea leaf, land at 0 mg.

For context, an 8-ounce cup of brewed coffee averages around 95 mg, nearly double a typical black tea. Cola beverages generally contain less caffeine than cups of black or oolong tea, so tea often has higher caffeine than soda.

  • Black tea: 40–70 mg
  • Oolong: 30–50 mg
  • Green tea: 15–45 mg
  • White tea: 15–35 mg
  • Matcha (2 g): 38–88 mg
  • Decaf: 2–5 mg
  • Herbal: 0 mg

These are ranges, not fixed numbers. How you steep your tea moves the actual caffeine in your cup up or down within these bands, sometimes dramatically.

Key Takeaways

Caffeine in tea depends less on the type of leaf and more on how long, how hot, and how finely cut that leaf is when you brew it.

Point Details
Black tea leads infusions Typically 40–70 mg per 8 oz, more than most sodas and roughly half of brewed coffee.
Matcha is the outlier Whole-leaf powder delivers 38–88 mg per 2 g serving since you drink the leaf itself.
Decaf isn’t zero Decaffeinated tea retains about 2–5 mg per cup, unlike truly caffeine-free herbal tisanes.
Brewing controls the outcome Steep time, water temperature, and leaf cut shift caffeine within each type’s range.
Sample before you commit D&K Bean and Leaf’s labeled tea collection makes side-by-side caffeine comparisons easy.

Table of Contents

Tea Caffeine Levels Chart: Ranges and Midpoints

Numbers help more than adjectives when you’re trying to manage caffeine intake, so here’s the breakdown by type. All figures are per 8-ounce (240 ml) serving unless noted, with midpoints drawn from USDA FoodData Central typical values and cross-checked against Mayo Clinic’s reference chart.

Tea type Typical range (mg) Midpoint (mg) What pushes it higher
Matcha (2 g serving) 38–88 47 Larger scoop, more powder mass
Black tea 40–70 47 Longer steep times, hotter water temperatures, and more finely broken leaf increase caffeine extraction during brewing.
Oolong 30–50 40 Longer oxidation and steep time
Green tea 15–45 30 Hotter water than recommended, extended steep
White tea 15–35 15 Longer steep despite lower temperature
Decaf (black or green) 2–5 3 Processing method used to decaffeinate
Herbal tisane 0 0 Not applicable, contains no tea leaf

Notice that black tea and matcha overlap at the high end. A weak, quick-steeped black tea can land near a light matcha, while a heavy-handed matcha scoop can rival two cups of green tea. The ranges exist because brewing choices, not just tea type, decide where your actual cup falls.

What Changes Caffeine In Your Cup

Four variables control how much caffeine ends up in your mug, and you have direct influence over three of them every time you brew.

  1. Steep time. A short 1 to 2 minute steep pulls out a fraction of available caffeine. Push that to 4 or 5 minutes and extraction climbs substantially, sometimes adding 15 to 20 mg to a single cup.
  2. Water temperature. Hotter water extracts caffeine faster across every tea type. Black tea brewed near boiling (200 to 212°F) pulls more caffeine per minute than green or white tea brewed at 160 to 180°F, which is part of why those cooler-brewed teas land lower even before you factor in leaf differences.
  3. Leaf cut. Broken leaf and “dust,” the stuff inside most standard tea bags, has far more surface area than whole leaf. It releases caffeine faster and more completely in the same steep time.
  4. Repeat steeps. Whole-leaf tea brewed a second or third time carries noticeably less caffeine than the first infusion, since much of what’s extractable comes out in that first pass.

Pro Tip: If you love the flavor of a stronger green tea but want less caffeine, drop the water temperature to around 160°F and steep a little longer. You’ll pull more flavor compounds relative to caffeine than a hot, fast steep does.

Why Matcha And Powdered Teas Run Higher

Every other tea on this list is an infusion. You steep leaves, then discard them. Matcha flips that entirely. You whisk the ground leaf directly into water and drink the whole thing, which means you’re consuming every milligram of caffeine in that powder rather than whatever happens to dissolve out during a few minutes of steeping.

  • A standard 2-gram serving lands around 38 to 88 mg.
  • Because caffeine scales with powder mass, a heaping 4-gram scoop can push past what you’d get from a full cup of brewed coffee.
  • Ceremonial-grade matcha, made from younger, more caffeine-rich leaves, tends to sit higher in that range than culinary-grade blends used for lattes and baking.

If you want less caffeine without giving up matcha entirely, use a smaller scoop, closer to 1 gram, and whisk with slightly cooler water. Measuring by weight rather than “a teaspoon” gives you a far more consistent result.

Decaf And Herbal: Zero Versus Nearly Zero

These two categories get lumped together constantly, and they shouldn’t be. Herbal tisanes like peppermint, chamomile, rooibos, and hibiscus contain no Camellia sinensis at all, so they land at a true 0 mg. Decaffeinated black or green tea, on the other hand, still comes from real tea leaves that have had most, not all, of their caffeine removed during processing.

  • Zero caffeine, guaranteed: herbal and fruit tisanes with no tea leaf in the blend.
  • Very low, not zero: decaf black or green tea, typically 2 to 5 mg per cup.
  • If you’re avoiding caffeine entirely, for pregnancy, medication interactions, or personal sensitivity, herbal is the safer default. If you drink several cups a day, that 2 to 5 mg per decaf cup adds up faster than a single serving suggests.

Tea, Coffee, And Soda: Where Tea Actually Ranks

Put these side by side and the picture gets clearer. Brewed coffee averages roughly 95 mg per 8 ounces, while black tea’s midpoint sits around 47 mg, roughly half. Cola typically delivers just 20 to 40 mg per 8 ounces, which means a standard cup of black or oolong tea often contains more caffeine than a can of soda, a detail that surprises a lot of people who assume tea is automatically the gentler choice.

  • Coffee: ~95 mg (8 oz)
  • Black or oolong tea: 30–70 mg (8 oz)
  • Cola: 20–40 mg (8 oz)
  • Green or white tea: 15–45 mg (8 oz)

Mayo Clinic guidance puts the upper daily limit at roughly 400 mg for most healthy adults, or about four cups of coffee. Pregnant women and children need considerably lower thresholds, so if you’re brewing for the whole family, tea’s lower ceiling per cup gives you more room before hitting those limits.

How To Dial Caffeine Up Or Down In Your Cup

You don’t need a different tea to change how much caffeine lands in your mug. You need different technique.

  1. For a lower-caffeine cup: use water at 160 to 175°F, steep 2 to 3 minutes, and choose whole-leaf over bagged tea when you can.
  2. For a stronger cup: steep 4 to 5 minutes at the higher end of the recommended temperature for that tea type, and use broken-leaf or bagged tea for faster extraction.
  3. Try cold brewing. Steeping tea in cold water over several hours extracts caffeine much more slowly than a hot steep, so even a long cold-brew session often ends up with less caffeine per serving than a quick hot cup.
  4. Rinse and re-steep. A 5-second hot water rinse on whole-leaf tea, discarded before your real steep, knocks out a portion of surface caffeine. Your second infusion afterward will run noticeably milder than the first.
  5. Swap in decaf or herbal for an evening cup instead of cutting tea out altogether, especially if you’re sensitive to caffeine after early afternoon.

Where These Numbers Come From

These ranges aren’t a single lab test. They’re compiled from USDA FoodData Central typical values, peer-reviewed extraction studies, and Mayo Clinic’s consumer reference charts, then cross-checked for consistency.

Ranges exist because tea isn’t standardized the way a can of soda is. Leaf origin, processing, cut, and your own steep time all shift the final number, sometimes by 20 mg or more within the same tea type.

Kristopher covers coffee and tea sourcing for D&K Bean and Leaf, focusing on how origin and processing translate into what actually ends up in your cup.

A Few Rules Of Thumb Worth Keeping

Morning cups favor black or oolong, high caffeine, bolder flavor. Afternoon calls for green or white. Evening belongs to decaf or herbal, full stop. One more thing worth knowing: L-theanine in tea tends to smooth out caffeine’s edge, which is why a cup of tea often feels calmer than a coffee with the same caffeine count.

— Kristopher

Find Your Caffeine Sweet Spot With D&K Bean And Leaf

Reading a chart only gets you so far. Your own tolerance, sleep schedule, and taste preferences decide what actually works, and the fastest way to find that sweet spot is tasting side by side rather than guessing from a table. D&K Bean and Leaf’s loose leaf tea collection is organized with clear labeling by type, so you can move from a bold black to a lighter green or a caffeine-free herbal without hunting through vague descriptions.

Dkbeanleaf

Sample packs let you try several types in smaller quantities before committing to a full bag, which matters if you’re still figuring out where your personal caffeine ceiling sits. Pair a stronger black tea for your morning routine with a decaf or herbal option for evenings, and you’ll have both ends of the caffeine spectrum covered without buying separate large bags of each. Visit the tea collection to build your own comparison set.

Sources

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