No one can deny the health benefits of green tea. Interestingly, it is observed from many studies that green tea has tremendously improvised the brain function and enhanced brain aging. Also, green tea helps in reducing the risk of heart diseases, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
However, it’s a myth that revolves around the globe that it’s caffeine-free. Furthermore, just like regular tea, green tea also contains caffeine. Therefore, one must be aware of the amount of caffeine consumed during taking or limiting.
Let’s find out how does green tea have caffeine? Does green tea extract have caffeine? Or how much caffeine does green tea have?
Table of Contents
How Does Green Tea Have Caffeine?
From recent research, the myth of green tea that doesn’t have caffeine has been falsified. Since caffeine has been naturally present in green tea. However, the amount of caffeine depends upon the variety of plants, the conditions in which a tea plant is growing, the methodology took place during processing and the way it brewed.
For example, older the leaves of the tea lesser will be the amount of caffeine in it. On the contrary, the younger leaves of tea have relatively high caffeine consistency.
Does Green Tea Extract Have Caffeine?
Furthermore, in your green tea, the amount of caffeine can be affected by the type of green tea you are choosing and how you will prepare it. For example, the tendency of caffeine is higher in bagged tea as compared to loose tea leaves. This is due to the crushed leaves within the tea bags, resulting in the extraction of more caffeine-infused within your drink.
Additionally, you can have a higher amount of caffeine content in matcha then both loose and bagged green tea. Furthermore, for powdered tea, the serving size of the drink is relatively small i.e. 1 gm or half teaspoon per serving. This helps in maintaining the balance of caffeine consistency in powdered matcha tea and bagged tea. Interestingly, your green tea will infuse more caffeine when brewed for a long time and dissolved in hotter water.
How Much Caffeine Does Green Tea Have?
On average the amount of caffeine in each 8 oz serving of green tea can roughly be estimated at around 35 mg. this average amount of caffeine can be varied. The total amount of caffeine can lie between 30 mg to 50 mg in 8 oz per serving. Cited below is the list of samples stated by the Journal of Food Science for the caffeine measurements. These samples are made up with the sample collected from 8 oz water per 2 grams of dry green tea brewed for 2 min:
- Stash Tea Decaf Green – 7.6 mg
- Ten Ren Green Tea – 16.4 mg
- Stash Tea Organic Green Tea – 27 mg
- Peet’s Coffee Green Tea – 33.4 mg
- Celestial Seasonings Green Tea – 12 mg
- Lipton Green Tea – 16.4 mg
- Stash Tea Premium Green Tea – 30.2 mg
- Stash Tea Dragonwell Exotica Green Tea – 47.8 mg
Likewise, you will find the variance of caffeine consistency in different commercially available tea drinks, for instance, bottled drinks, freshly prepared drinks in the coffee house or within a tea shop. The following are the samples of various commercially prepared green tea producers.
- Lipton Brisk Green Tea (12 oz.) – 6 mg caffeine (4 mg per 8 oz.)
- Snapple Green Tea (16 oz.) – 15 mg caffeine (7.5 mg per 8 oz.)
- Nestea Peach Green Tea (20 oz.) – 42 mg caffeine (16.8 mg per 8 oz.)
- Starbucks Green Tea Creme Frappuccino (Tall / 12 oz.) – 75 mg caffeine (50 mg
per 8 oz.) - Arizona Green Teas (23.5 oz.) – 22 mg caffeine (under 7.5 mg per 8 oz.)
- SoBe Green Tea (20 oz.) – 35 mg caffeine (14 mg per 8 oz.)
- Caribou Green Tea Smoothie (12 oz) – 44 mg caffeine (29.3 mg caffeine per 8
oz.)
Tips and Techniques To Limit Green Tea To Maintain Balanced Caffeine Daily Intake
Although there is nothing to worry about caffeine dosage it’s a best practice to keep the track of your daily caffeine intake. Here are the few tips and techniques that will help you in reducing the caffeine within your green tea.
- Avoid coffee or green tea houses
- Try to pick decaf green tea – Although decaf green teas are not caffeine-free they have less amount of caffeine content in them.
- Prefer to drink green tea with the 50-50 blended combination of lemongrass or mint or any flavor of your choice.
- Try not to decaffeinate the green tea at home. As this home tea decaffeination is more of myth.
- Brewing your green tea correctly and properly is important.
- Between loose leaves and Bagged green tea, choose the loose tea leaf as your foremost option.
- Avoid tea buds or tips as it contains higher caffeine content. Since, chose twig teas that include stems, or twigs of the tea plants which contains less caffeine.
- Try to maintain a good distance between your regular green tea drink and powdered green tea.
Read More: 9 Caffeine Facts You Must Know If You Are A Caffeine Buff!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1: Caffeine in green tea, do we need to worry about anything?
As everyone knows caffeine is a natural stimulant to keep the brain, active and focused. However, one must keep an eye on its daily caffeine intake. On average the chances of having diseases due to caffeine intake is low as compared to other caffeinated beverages. So as long as you are consuming them within a safe situation you don’t have to worry about the side effects caused by green tea.
Q2: What is the recommended caffeine intake is allowed for an adult?
For adults above 19, the safest limit of consuming caffeine is 400 mg per day or it could be 2.7 mg/ ponds one’s body weight.
Q3: Which factors affect the consistency of caffeine in green tea?
Following are the factors that directly or indirectly affect the amount of caffeine in green tea:
- Variety of plants
- The conditions in which the tea plant is growing
- The methodology took place during processing
- The way it is brewed
- The type of green tea you are choosing
- How you will prepare it
Q4: Does green tea extract have caffeine?
Yes, the green tea extracts are enriched in catechins that have a decent amount of caffeine in them.
Q5: How much caffeine does green tea have?
On an average of 8 oz serving of green tea can roughly have caffeine 35 mg. The total amount of caffeine can lie between 30 mg to 50 mg in 8 oz per serving.
