A standard 240 ml cup of black tea carries about 40 to 50 mg of caffeine. A drip coffee the same size carries 95 mg, so tea sits at roughly half a coffee.
Cup by cup
- Black tea: about 45 mg
- Green tea: about 28 mg
- Matcha: about 60 to 70 mg, because you drink the whole leaf
- White tea: about 15 to 30 mg
- Herbal tea: 0 mg, it is not really tea
Steeping matters more than the variety
Most of the caffeine leaves the leaf in the first minutes. A 1 minute steep pulls far less than a 5 minute one, and hot water pulls more than cold. Two people with the same box of tea can be drinking amounts that differ by half.
Does tea hit differently?
The lift feels gentler, and that is not imagination: tea also carries L-theanine, which smooths the edge off the same caffeine. The half-life is identical though, so an evening cup still shows up in your sleep.
Caffy has black, green, white and oolong tea built in, with steeping strength, so your afternoon cup lands on the curve at its real value.