Does Tea Have More Caffeine Than Coffee?

February 20, 2026 Krisi Smith 1 comment

So the big question... Does tea have more caffeine than coffee?!

The fact is tea does not contain more caffeine than coffee! A cuppa actually contains about 50mg - half the amount compared to instant coffee and a third of what is in a cup of filter coffee!

Woah! Say What?

If you think about it, tea leaves are infused and thrown out - coffee beans are also ground and so dissolve a lot more in brewing, which concentrates the caffeine in a cup. Serving variants such as espresso and double - espresso are even more concentrated, containing in excess of 1 and ½ times and 2 and 1/2 times more respectively.

There's more!

What is even more intriguing about tea is that along with caffeine, tea also has L-Theanine, which modulates the effect of caffeine on the body. It is this combination that makes tea - unlike coffee - both stimulating and relaxing. You do not get the jitters!

Continue reading to see us debunk common tea myths for you!

If you want to, a nice follow-up read is our ‘Is decaf tea better for you?’ article.

Generally speaking, all teas from the Camellia plant (green, white, black, yellow, oolong and pu'erh) have similar amount of caffeine as they come from the same plant.
Blending with different caffeine-free ingredients can reduce the amount of caffeine in a tea.
The way your tea is brewed will also affect how much caffeine you get in your cup - brewing tea stronger will of course release more into your cup.
Matcha is special when it comes to caffeine in tea. Like coffee, this tea is ground into a powder, meaning you consume the whole leaf when you drink a cup. A cup of matcha has more caffeine than a cup of tea, but less than a cup of coffee! So there you have it!
Caffeine is in many natural types of foods and drinks. It stimulates and energises you, so a cuppa can help refresh you, setting you up for a demanding day, and you can have as many as 5 cups a day and it is only a total of 200 mg per day (or 2-3 cups of coffee equivalent!).

What has more caffeine: Tea or Coffee?

If you are considering your caffeine intake, you could also consider how caffeine fits into your lifestyle, health and goals, as you could be surprised to find that caffeine in tea might actually be helpful!

Check out a few of our teas that contain different levels of caffeine - some have none at all:

What is caffeine?

Caffeine is a natural compound found in plants like Camellia Sinensis plant (tea plant) and coffee, yerba mate and guarana.

The caffeine in the plants helps to kill all the pesky bugs that are trying to eat its lush leaves!

It acts as a stimulant in humans and is a natural pesticide.

But not all caffeine is stored in similar amounts in these different plants, hence the different effect from drinking them.

Discover our caffeinated blends of matcha, black tea, green tea, oolong tea, white tea & mate tea.

Which tea type has more caffeine?

All types of tea start as a leaf from the Camellia Sinensis plant. The type of tea which those leaves eventually end up as (black, green, white etc.) is influenced by their treatment once they are picked. Because the raw material is all the same - green leaf from the same plant - the caffeine content is broadly the same! There are some nuances that may, however, mean your cup of tea has more caffeine:

A cup of matcha has more caffeine because the leaves are dried and then ground into this beautiful smooth powder made from the whole leaf, so you are consuming the whole leaves - in powder form.
Black or green tea brewed really strong and for long will mean your cup has more caffeine too. The long brew extracts more caffeine, and similarly, more tea leaves for the brew means more caffeine.
Brewing any tea at lower temperature will release slightly less caffeine into your cup

Then you get blended teas (our speciality!), which are different types of teas blended with various ingredients. For all of our blended teas, the caffeine content is lower than straight teas because we blend in a lot of other naturally caffeine-free herbs & spices, meaning the proportion of caffeinated tea in the blend is lowered.

If you want to avoid caffeine altogether, there are plenty of options out there that naturally do not contain any caffeine at all.

Good news! Bird & Blend has one of the largest selections of totally caffeine free tea in the UK. Any of our blends that have orange labels (fruit tea), pink labels (herbal tea) or red labels (rooibos tea) are completely naturally caffeine free (unless stated on the packaging that it's blended with other types of teas).