Since you’re visiting this site, you’re probably well aware that tea is one of the world’s most popular beverages, and it comes in many different varieties. Two of the most well-known types are green tea and black tea. Both are made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, but they differ in their processing methods, flavour, and health benefits. In this article, we’ll explore the differences between green tea and black tea and help you decide which one is right for you.

Processing Methods

Green tea and black tea are made from the same plant, but the difference lies in the processing methods. Green tea is made from un-oxidized leaves, while black tea is made from fully oxidized leaves.

Green tea leaves are picked, steamed or pan-fired, and then dried. This process preserves many of the natural antioxidants and polyphenols in the tea leaves, making green tea a fresh-tasting, healthy option.

Black tea leaves, on the other hand, undergo a series of processes that involve withering, rolling, oxidizing, and drying. This process gives black tea its characteristic flavour and aroma, but can also reduce the amount of antioxidants and polyphenols in the tea leaves.

Flavour

Green tea and black tea have distinct flavours and aromas. Green tea tends to have a lighter, refreshing taste with a grassy or vegetal flavour. This can range from a delicate floral aroma, to heavy seaweed or dark green vegetable flavours, and it can also have hints of sweetness or nuttiness, depending on the variety. When steeping a green tea, remember that the leaves are more delicate than black teas — follow the time and temperature instructions to ensure that your tea doesn’t get bitter (unless, of course, you like a strong bitter green tea… in which case, go nuts!).

Black tea, on the other hand, tends to have a richer, deeper flavour and a darker red-brown colour in the cup. It can have notes of fruit, spice, or even chocolate, depending on the variety. Black tea is often served with lemon or with milk and/or sugar depending on personal — or cultural — preferences.

Health Benefits

Green tea and black tea both have health benefits, but they differ in their specific properties. Green tea is known for its high antioxidant content, which can help protect the body against free radicals and reduce the risk of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. Many of the health studies around tea are based on green tea, so there’s more research and data on the health benefits of green tea than black tea.

Black tea is rich in flavonoids, which are antioxidants that can help improve heart health and reduce the risk of stroke.

Green and black teas are both a natural source of caffeine, which can help improve mental alertness. A typical cup of tea has about 1/3 the amount of caffeine that you would find in the same size cup of coffee – but of course this can vary depending on the growing conditions and specific variety of tea and/or coffee, as well as the brewing methods used. In addition to caffeine, tea contains L-theanine, an amino acid that helps provide a calming and regulating effect. This combination of caffeine and L-theanine is one of the reasons that many people find that tea provides a sense of alert concentration, while coffee gives them caffeine jitters (myself very much included).

Choosing the Right Tea

So, which tea should you choose? It really depends on your personal taste and health goals.

If you’re looking for a refreshing beverage that’s packed with antioxidants, green tea is the way to go. Green tea is a great choice for those who want to improve their overall health and reduce their risk of chronic diseases.

If you’re looking for a bold, robust flavour that might have more of a kick, black tea is the way to go.

No matter which tea you choose, be sure to enjoy it in moderation as part of a healthy and balanced diet. Both green tea and black tea can be enjoyed hot or cold, with or without milk and sugar, and are a great way to stay hydrated throughout the day. So why not try both and see which one you prefer? Or, better yet, don’t choose one or the other: drink either one whenever you want to! (You can even mix them… check out this blog post to learn more about blending teas!)

This is one of the most common and most hotly debated topics in the world of tea.

Unfortunately, the only answer that we can give here – as frustrating as it may be – is: it depends.

Predicting the exact amount of caffeine in a particular tea is very difficult – as it will vary from cup to cup. That’s because the amount of caffeine in tea depends on many factors, including:

• Type of tea
• Growing conditions of the tea plant
• Tea to water ratio
• Presence of other ingredients (in a tea blend)
• Serving size
• When and how the tea leaves were picked
• How the tea leaves were processed

Because of these variables, the only way to tell exactly how much caffeine is in a given cup of tea is to perform a lab test on that exact cup.

That said, there are some rules of thumb that we can consider to determine the amount of caffeine in a tea or tea blend. Let’s take a look!

Does tea have more caffeine than coffee?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: In the age-old debate of tea vs coffee, we know that tea has a lower caffeine content. But how much lower? According to the Tea & Herbal Association of Canada, a cup of tea typically has about 1/3 of the amount of caffeine found in a similar size cup of coffee.

However, there is more caffeine in a kilo of dry tea leaves than there is in a kilo of coffee beans. The difference – once you get to your final cup – is that you use about a teaspoon (2.5g) of tea per cup, whereas you use A LOT more coffee beans to make a cup of coffee. If you’re a coffee + tea household, think about how many bags of coffee you go through in a month vs how many equal weight bags of tea!

Does green tea have caffeine? What about white tea?

Short answer: OMG YES.

Long answer: It is a common (and irritating… can you tell?) myth that green tea and white tea are caffeine-free or low in caffeine.

White and green tea (along with oolong) come from the same plant as black tea – Camellia sinensis – and they all contain caffeine. The difference that you see in the leaves in your tea cupboard comes from how they are processed:

• White tea is simply picked and dried. Although it has a reputation for being lower in caffeine, some white teas, once brewed, actually have higher caffeine levels than other teas.
• Green tea is preserved through a heat process such as steaming or pan firing (kind of like cooking broccoli). For a number of reasons, a cup of green tea will, on average, have slightly less caffeine than a cup of black tea, BUT it’s possible to find green teas with more caffeine than some black teas.
• Black tea is fully oxidized: basically this means that the tea leaves are bumped and bruised and left to turn brown before it’s dried into tea – this allows a chemical process to take place inside the cell walls and also changes the way the tea is extracted from the leaves when brewed.

There are thousands of different white, green and black teas – not to mention oolong, yellow, puerh and even purple teas. They’re grown and harvested under different conditions around the world, so even grouping them by category is an oversimplification. Learn more about different kinds of tea in Sarah’s Tea 101 course on Udemy (some of the modules are free!).

Does chai tea have caffeine?

Short answer: yes, and please just call it chai.

Long answer: Traditional chai (chai means tea, so if you say chai tea you’re saying tea tea) is made with hot milk, a sweetener, spices and black tea. Unless it is made specifically with decaffeinated black tea (which has gone through a chemical process to have the caffeine dissolved out of the tea leaf), there is caffeine in chai.

However: a teaspoon of chai is likely to contain less caffeine than a teaspoon of an unblended black tea, because a portion of the chai spoonful is made up of spices… leaving less room for tea. A good chai blend can be 50% (or more) spices! Depending on how you make your chai, this could reduce the amount of caffeine in your cuppa.

If you want to make caffeine-free chai, choose an option with a herbal base, such as rooibos: easy and delicious!

Does herbal tea have caffeine?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: Tea people call anything that doesn’t come from the Camellia sinensis plant a herbal tea or tisane. Almost all herbal teas are caffeine-free. This includes common herbals such as:

• Peppermint
• Chamomile
• Rooibos
• Hibiscus blends
• Fruit blends

There are some notable exceptions to the ‘caffeine free’ herbal rule. Three herbals that naturally contain caffeine (and sometimes a lot of it) are:

• Yerba Mate – a staple beverage in South America
• Yaupon, a plant native to the southern USA
• Coffee leaf tea, which is literally made by brewing the leaves of the coffee plant

Why does tea have less of a jolt than coffee?

Short answer: L-theanine.

Long answer: You might call it a buzz (nice) or the jitters (not nice), depending on how you experience coffee! The fact is that most people react to coffee differently than they do to tea. Yes, this is partly due to the fact that there’s more caffeine in a cup coffee than in a cup of tea, but the other factor is L-theanine. In a cup of tea, the two components work together: caffeine is a stimulant, providing alertness and energy, while L-theanine helps you stay calm, cool and collected. Together, they provide a sustained alertness and focus that not everyone can attain after a cup of coffee. (Can you tell there’s personal experience talking here? Bzzzzz.)

A special example to raise when discussing the tea vs coffee jolt is matcha. Matcha is made from finely ground green tea leaves (yup – Camellia sinensis again) – so when you drink a cup of matcha you’re actually consuming the whole tea leaf. This means that a typical bowl of matcha (or matcha latte) will have nearly as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. However, the combined presence of caffeine and L-theanine is the reason that Buddhist monks have used matcha for centuries as part of their meditative practices: it provides calm, focused alertness.

Can I drink tea before bed?

Short answer: yeah! You do you.

Long answer: Everyone reacts differently to caffeine. Some people (and you can see trends of this in some tea-loving cultures) are able to enjoy a big mug of green tea or pot of Earl Grey black tea as a wind-down before they drift off to sleep… but for others, even a whisper of caffeine after 4pm spells disaster for their night time. If this is you – stick to caffeine-free herbals before bed – and don’t get sucked into the “white/green tea doesn’t really have caffeine” trap.

You know yourself best: if you find a cup of a certain tea to be more soothing and calming than the next – drink what works for you, when it works for you!

To sum it up…

While it’s frustratingly simplistic, the main messages here are:

• Tea, if it comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, naturally contains caffeine
• In general, a cup of steeped tea will contain about 1/3 of the caffeine found in coffee
• Matcha is an exception, and contains almost as much caffeine as in coffee
• Due to the balancing effect of L-theanine in tea (including matcha), tea provides a more calm alertness compared to coffee jitters
• Everyone has a different personal preference, tolerance and reaction to caffeine – so find what works for you!

It’s summer, and it is HOT outside! Across Canada, there’s a heatwave that’s breaking all kinds of records this year. Drinking hot tea is a year-round habit in many hot countries (including Turkey)… but while I like my morning cuppa hot in all seasons, sometimes one just needs to chill. And iced tea is a great way to do it!

Water, of course, is necessary for hydration – especially when it gets hot outside. But luckily for us tea lovers, unsweetened tea is also recommended by Canada’s Food Guide as a healthy drink choice. Make that tea extra refreshing by putting it on ice.

How to brew iced tea

There are two main methods for brewing iced tea: cold infusion and hot steeping.

Cold infusion works best with more delicate teas like green tea or fruity herbal blends that contain ingredients like peppermint, lemongrass and hibiscus. And it’s super simple! In a pitcher, simply add a heaping teaspoon (about 2.5g) of loose leaf tea per serving, fill with cold water, and refrigerate for anywhere from 2-24 hours depending on the tea. This might take a little trial and error to perfect, but the benefit of cold brew is that it prevents tea from getting bitter, even if it’s a bit over-steeped. Once your cold tea is infused to perfection, simply pour and serve – garnishing as you wish with ice, mint or fruit.

Hot steeping is the best method for black teas – or when you want your iced tea RIGHT NOW. In this method, STEP 1 is to pour boiling water over your tea leaves and allow to steep for about 4 minutes as you normally would: but be sure to brew the tea double-strength (so either 2x the tea leaves or half the normal amount of water). This is so that in STEP 2, when you pour the hot, strong tea over ice, the melted ice dilutes the tea back to regular strength.

This past June, the Tea & Herbal Association of Canada celebrated Iced Tea Month with a live video series called Iced Tea’V’. The series featured all kinds of iced tea tips and recipes from tea experts from across the country. Proper Cuppa was asked to provide a segment for this series – so we developed and demonstrated a recipe for Extra Creamy Iced Lavender Earl Grey.

Here’s the recipe* (makes 2 servings):

• 4g Earl Grey
• 6g Vanilla
• 1/8 tsp Lavender Petals (to taste!)
• Boiling hot water
• Ice
• Maple Syrup to taste
• Milk or alternative (we used unsweetened vanilla oat milk)

In an iced tea latte, you’re not only diluting your hot brew tea over ice – you’re diluting it again by adding milk. So brew your Earl Grey + Vanilla + Lavender petals into a hot tea that is 4x the normal strength, allowing a 4-5 minute steep. Fill your serving glasses with ice and strain the steeped tea over the ice until the glasses are 2/3 to 3/4 full. Sweeten with maple syrup to taste (maple syrup is extra delicious with vanilla), and top with milk. Enjoy!

Watch Sarah’s Iced Tea’V’ demo here!

In this recipe, the vanilla tea provides a creamy note that is turned up by the maple syrup, and then taken to another level with the vanilla oat milk. The Earl Grey and lavender provide a really soothing aroma. So the combination of everything together makes a delicious, cold treat.

Developing your own iced tea recipes? We’d love to hear from you! Tag @propercuppatea on Instagram.

*For this recipe we have used the teas from our Tea Blending Kit but you can use whatever you have available.

We’ve all heard that taste is 90% smell. I could tell you how true this is, but I think it’s far more effective if you can experience it yourself: take 30 seconds and try The Jellybean Experiment (watch me walk you through it here). You won’t regret it!

The Jellybean Experiment

1. Close your eyes and plug your nose. Don’t let go!
2. Put a jellybean in your mouth. Chew and describe what you taste. Don’t swallow it.
3. When you’re ready, release your nostrils, chew the jellybean again, describe what you perceive now. THAT’s what they mean when they say that taste is 90% smell!

Seriously, try it. Jellybeans work great for this demonstration because you are blind to which flavour you’re tasting when you put it in your mouth, but if you don’t have a jellybean try with a piece of fruit or chocolate.

The flood of sensation you get when you unplug your nose is from all of the nasal cavities filling up with aroma compounds. Your nose has the two nostrils out front, but there are also channels leading from the back of your throat into your nasal cavity. We smell our food (or tea) as it moves through the palate, not just when we’re sniffing before we take the first sip. Things we do to break down, warm up and aerate what’s in our mouth help to release more of those flavour molecules so that we can more fully experience what we are consuming.

If you’ve learned about wine tasting you’ve probably seen some entertaining swishing, bubbling, and so on. It’s the same idea – putting air into the wine so that those olfactory sensors in the back of your throat can pick up on them, and then spreading the liquid all over your tongue.

In tea we have the added aspect of heat. Tea is best tasted when it’s hot, because the heat releases more aroma compounds. However, if you’re not careful, you can burn your tongue. Therefore, in official tea tasting methodology we do “The Slurp”.

Slurping tea off a spoon has 3 goals:

1. cooling the tea so you don’t burn your tongue
2. adding air so more aroma compounds can be perceived through our olfactory system
3. spraying the tea across the palate so that all of the tastebuds get activated.

As a Tea Sommelier certified by the Tea & Herbal Association of Canada, I learned to slurp at 125 miles (200km) per hour. It takes some practice! To see what spoon to use and watch a demonstration of me slurping tea check out this video.