How much caffeine in one tea bag

Apparently tea contains more caffeine than coffee. Why is it that coffee is typically so much more stimulating than tea?

Nick, London UK

• Tea leaves have more caffeine than coffee beans before they are brewed. Prepared, however, tea is diluted quite a bit more than most coffees. Each will vary depending on how strong you like it, though. I understand also that the caffeine content in tea is extracted during the first ten seconds of brewing. So if you're looking for more of a jolt, don't steep the tea for ages, just use more tea leaves.

  Elfling, New York USA

• Unmade tea contains more caffeine than unmade coffee, however when you make the drink lots of caffeine is left in the tea leaves you throw away leaving less in the tea you drink than in coffee.

  Sue, Cambridge uk

• maybe because tea contains half the caffeine of coffee according to a reputable source (my PG Tips packet)

  Anthony Duthoit, Pewsey Wilts

• The average cup of tea contains about half as much caffeine as the average cup of instant coffee, and the average cup of instant coffee contains about half as much caffeine as a cup of proper espresso coffee. So I think the idea that tea contains more caffeine that coffee is an urban myth (unless, it's say, gramme for gramme, rather than cup for cup, as it were).

  Joanne Sheppard, London Uk

• Coffee contains more caffeine. 60mg per cup, compared to 50mg for tea. These are typical values.

  Dermot Nolan, Oxford, UK

• Tea is also commonly drank white while coffee tends to be drunk black. As warm milk has sedative qualities it is reasonable to assume that this couteracts some of the effects of the caffeine

  Tom, London

• As well as caffeine, tea contains various tannins, which serve to slow down the absorbtion of caffeine into the bloodstream.

  Doug Jones, Warwick Bermuda

• I have heard that coffee contains stimulants other than caffeine... can anyone expand on this?

  James Hawk, Chiswick, London UK

• There is another factor here too. There is evidence to suggest that a higher proportion of the the caffine in tea (as opposed to coffee) is biochemically 'bound' leading to it being pharmacologically inactive.

  Stephen Marchant, Beaconsfield UK

• Nah, it isn't true.

  Danny Stevens, Nottingham

• Caffeine is not "bound" to anything in tea, at least not in the sense you are thinking. It is just as active in tea as coffee. Tannins do not "slow the absorption" of caffeine. I'd ask you to find some sort of source for that, but its impossible because you made it up completely. Tea contains more caffeine per gram of loose tea as compared to per gram of ground coffee, but a cup of tea uses far less "material" than a cup of coffee. A cup of brewed coffee made by standard directions has 100-200mg of caffeine, a cup of brewed black tea made by standard directions has 40-75mg of caffeine. All of this varies when you just add different amounts of tea or coffee. //www.ico.org/caffeine.asp //www.faqs.org/faqs/caffeine-faq/ //www.nobleharbor.com/tea/caffiene.html

  Erol Bakkalbasi, Houston, TX USA

• I keep hearing different things about the brewing time for tea. If you let the tea bag steep for longer, will this result in a more or less caffeinated drink? Are there any other ways to maximize the caffeine in tea? thanks

  student without a coffee machine, pinnacle usa

• Why do you accuse Tom of "making it up," Danny? The assertion that tannic acids deleteriously affect caffeine in beverages is widely attested--alternately as; binding to/ nutralising the caffeine molecule, countering the stimulative properties, or as reducing the degree of bio-uptake. I am not a 'chemist' (US usage), so I have no idea if any of those claims are consistent with the scientific literature. However Tom certainly did NOT pull the idea out of his ear for this discussion board! (JFGI before accusing someone of lying, here's one of many pages repeating the claim: //ezinearticles.com/?The-Combined-Stimulation-of-Caffeine-and-Tannin-in-Tea&id=3604069 )

  Tobias, Honolulu, US

• The importance of the brewing time of tea, (and other factors which granny always insisted on too), is simply that the flavours, perhaps some of the caffeine too, is locked away inside the cells in the dried leaf and these must be physically ruptured to get them out. The active ingredients of coffee are simply washed off the ground powder after it has been roasted. To cause the cells to burst you MUST use BOILING water, straight out of the kettle as it is still bubbling. This scalds the tea and causes the cellular structure to pop. A glass of 30 second old hot water and a tea bag can under no circumstances make a cup of decent tea! Granny also says heat the pot before pouring in the tea, it takes less energy out of the hot water; helping the process. She recommends to leave it for at least 5 minutes to brew, this may or may not extract more caffeine but it will certainly improve the taste by allowing more flavinoids to be extracted. And the tea could be 'mashed' with a spoon as it brews for obvious reasons. I've never had a good cup of tea from the usual fashion coffee shop outlet where I get a glass and bag. It produces an insipid cup even with the best tea. A lovely light Earl Grey for example will give a massively improved taste with the above points followed.

  Albert Burton, Newcastle UK

• Fifty-five years ago, I was taught that tea contained much less caffeine than coffee. Personally I drink and enjoy both and neither an expresso nor a properly brewed cup of Earl Grey keep me awake.

  Jim Johnson, Thompson, Norfolk UK

• You all know why a Pound of Feathers weighs a lot more than a Pound of Gold (Au)? Now to TEA, this does contain much more caffeine. Measured in the same weight quantity used. Do your own experiments. Also to release the activator in TEA drink Orange Juice with it..

  Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Borough of Park Ridge, Bergen County UNITED STATES of N. America

• Though i am not an expert, I can confidently say that coffee has more caffeine than tea because I have tried both more than once. Coffee can make you stay awake even when you are tired and craving sleep (this has happened to me), but tea cannot keep u awake for a long period unless u have slept before you have taken it (tea).

  Oghenekaro, Ogun state Nigeria

• As and Englishman who has drunk tea for over 60 years, my experience is that tea is more of a comforter rather than a stimulant. If we can't sleep at night a cup of tea usually helps (I like it fairly weak). We offer a cup of tea to someone who has just been bereaved or had an accident (not requiring medical attention) or other kind of shock. The comfort value of a nice cup of tea cannot be over-estimated.

  Phil Parsons, Stoke on Trent UK

• I drink tons of hot tea all day but I reuse the tea bag once because I heard the second cup would essentially be decaffienated. Now I learn that too much caffeine is bad for osteoporosis conditions. How much is too much?

  Judy, Harpers Ferry USA

• Well it is a very interesting thread that covers the topic in a lot of ways. I would need to look into extracting the maximum amount of caffeine from teabags to convert from a heavy coffee drinker to a tea drinker and then cut the caffeine down progressively by the looks of things.

  Duncan, kendenup australia

• These are all good answers, thank you.

  Robert, Powell River Canada

• Well, I was a Navy man for 30 years, and basically lived off of a combination of stimulants during that time. My favourite morning wake up was half a dozen 200mg Vivarin caffeine tablets washed down with a quadruple espresso light-roast. (Light roasts have more caffeine than dark or French roasts.) You have to understand that my rating was so undermanned that we typically stood watch-and-watch at sea. (For you land lubbers, that's four hours on duty, and four hours off, around the clock.) It does take a toll on you after a while. Back to the point, if I was in the mood for tea, I'd brew up a pot of English Breakfast loose-leaf. My German grandfather learned how to make it in a British P.O.W. camp in WWI. He would use two heaping tablespoons of tea per cup, and pour boiling water on it straight from the stove (in a pre-warmed pot, of course.) As it was steeping, he'd use a potato masher to press the leaves several times to "burst the leaves", as he put it. After it had steeped for 10 minutes, he use a wire whisk to whip air into the water to give it more flavour. (He said the boiled water has no air dissolved in it, and tastes flat.) When I followed his method (usually served Russian style with loaf sugar and lemon, or jam) I had no problems either waking up or staying awake. (When I was ashore, I thought the coffee and tea tasted a little strange for a while until I realized what it was. The water on land didn't have an exotic mixture of fuels floating atop your beverage, making little rainbows on the surface. Ah, the good old days...)

  Aryea, St. Louis, US

• I am a tea drinker, black & green, and according to some reports black tea leaves do contain more caffeine than coffee before it is made so it depends upon the strength, and if milk is added. However black tea contains from 25-100mg per 250ml cup whereas coffee is from 80-200mgm. Saying that I don't get a burst of energy from drinking tea, just comfort, and I could have 6-10 cups per day - and as for osteoporosis, I've had it for over 25 years and with all that tea I've drunk my osteoporosis is far better now than it was when I was diagnosed in my 30s.

  Carole, Woodgate Australia

• I am a coffee drinker at work and a tea drinker at home. I like both, but find tea more refreshing. The coffee in Sweden is almost always filter or brew and pretty nice too (instant can't touch the taste), but I find if I have more than two big cups a day I get very edgy and cannot settle. I do not feel the same effects with tea, loose leaf or bag. I love a proper loose leaf chai, as well as English breakfast.

  Chris Kishonti, Skurup, Sweden

• I drank five cups in a couple of hours this morning and no one seemed to notice and I was as smooth as ever. I guess my tolerance is quite good.

  Willie E, Dubai

• So far only one person has mentioned green tea. I only drink green tea and do not suffer any of the adverse effects I used to get from drinking coffee. Black and green teas come from the same leaves, but they are brewed differently. Does anyone know if the brewing process in green tea reduces caffeine to the extent it seems to?

  Denis MacEoin, Newcastle, UK