Tea and Caffeine

Teaology Tidbits

All teas but herbal teas contain caffeine, but the good news is that tea contains up to 50% less caffeine than coffee.

Caffeine is safe to consume, as long as you don’t go overboard with it. The recommended daily caffeine intake for adults is 400-450 mg. That’s around 10-12 cups of tea and only 4-5 cups of coffee.

To avoid caffeine in your tea altogether, you can always go for a decaffeinated blend, but the cool part is that even if you’ve run out of your favourite decaf tea you can still control how much caffeine is in your cup of tea.

The amount of caffeine in tea depends on the variety of the tea, as well as the strength of the brew. The longer you steep the leaves the stronger the brew and the more caffeine present in your tea. So to decrease the caffeine level by up to 60%, steep your loose leaf tea or teabag in hot water for 30-60 seconds, throw out the water and re-steep with fresh water for the minimum recommended time.

(Sorry coffee lovers, this ain’t gonna work with that java.)