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"Contrary to popular belief, Red teas like Darjeeling actually have less caffeine than White or Green teas because they are so highly processed." Is this actua

"Contrary to popular belief, Red teas like Darjeeling actually have less caffeine than White or Green teas because they are so highly processed." Is this actually true? I've never heard of green tea having more caffeine than red tea, besides maybe gunpowder green tea, which retains more caffeine due to less breakage from being rolled up.

Bayart 5y ago
I think lighter teas does have more caffeine per weight, but they're have much shorter infusion times (with the exception of Pu'er, which can go through15 infusions).
- radicaldreamer 5y ago
  Same thing with coffee, light roasts have more extractable caffeine than dark roasts.
- prophesi 5y ago
  Ah that would make sense. And water temperature likely plays a vital role as well. But for properly brewed green tea, it will still result in less caffeine than red tea as expected.
- hinkley 5y ago
  I think it's some of both. I emulate my dealer (Taiwanese direct importer), who intimated that she skips the strainer with her green tea and just puts here whole leaf green tea straight into the cup (you can only do this with whole leaf, as your lip becomes the strainer and broken tea ends up in your teeth). She reuses the same cup all day, topping it off when it's half full. When I space and drain it (often in the middle of a coding session), it still tastes and acts like tea for at least the first three cups, after that it gets pretty weak, until I abandon it for a good long while and then discover it's gone from weak to bitter.
hackernewds 5y ago
Red tea from Darjeeling is in a category called CTC tea, which is distinct from what you'd expect from black tea. Easy mixup since they look similar, besides the packaging
- prophesi 5y ago
  You can have loose leaf Darjeeling red tea as well. CTC is typically for bagged tea, which is unfortunately what's most popular in the USA/UK.
x3iv130f 5y ago
We really shouldn't be judging caffeine content by color. Certain tea varietals like Assamica have more caffeine than others. Black teas are seen as high caffeine because they use Assamica varietals more than other types of tea. Processing tea does remove caffeine. However I wouldn't be surprised if it also removed some of the neurochemicals that modulate caffeines effects. So your results may vary.
- hinkley 5y ago
  I'm not sure it's so much removing as bioavailability. As I just stated up thread, black and green tea rely on autolysis - enzymes in the leaf decompose insoluble caffeine crystals into a water soluble form. L theanine I think may be some of both. The heating and drying processes also help define what kind of tea you get, and we know that some vitamins don't survive cooking all that well (famously, sailors and scurvy).
andjd 5y ago
My suspicion here is that black tea, especially when prepared in the British style, has more caffeine per cup because it's brewed to be much stronger than green teas typically are. So both can be true, black tea typically has more caffeine per cup, but black tea leaves have less caffeine than green tea leaves when compared by weight or volume.
WillPostForFood 5y ago
Generalizations like this are always dicey, especially when the statements are so imprecise. Is he talking about green tea vs black tea leafs, or prepared green vs black tea? When he says green tea, what variety?
gwern 5y ago
A while back I looked at a few chemistry papers on measuring caffeine content in a variety of tea leaves, in the hopes of finding some low-caffeine green/oolong I could drink late at night. The impression I got was that there is so much variation batch to batch or year to year (not to mention preparation) that it largely swamps any attempt to say 'Darjeeling has less caffeine than Gunpowder Green'. There may be average differences but it's not too useful to know. Whether Red or Green, that tea could still easily be one that will keep you up if you drink it at 10PM. Ah well. (And decaffeinated teas are uniformly garbage-tasting, so that's no, ahem, solution.)

Bayart 5y ago

I think lighter teas does have more caffeine per weight, but they're have much shorter infusion times (with the exception of Pu'er, which can go through15 infusions).

radicaldreamer 5y ago
Same thing with coffee, light roasts have more extractable caffeine than dark roasts.
prophesi 5y ago
Ah that would make sense. And water temperature likely plays a vital role as well. But for properly brewed green tea, it will still result in less caffeine than red tea as expected.
hinkley 5y ago
I think it's some of both. I emulate my dealer (Taiwanese direct importer), who intimated that she skips the strainer with her green tea and just puts here whole leaf green tea straight into the cup (you can only do this with whole leaf, as your lip becomes the strainer and broken tea ends up in your teeth). She reuses the same cup all day, topping it off when it's half full. When I space and drain it (often in the middle of a coding session), it still tastes and acts like tea for at least the first three cups, after that it gets pretty weak, until I abandon it for a good long while and then discover it's gone from weak to bitter.

hackernewds 5y ago

Red tea from Darjeeling is in a category called CTC tea, which is distinct from what you'd expect from black tea. Easy mixup since they look similar, besides the packaging

prophesi 5y ago
You can have loose leaf Darjeeling red tea as well. CTC is typically for bagged tea, which is unfortunately what's most popular in the USA/UK.

x3iv130f 5y ago

We really shouldn't be judging caffeine content by color. Certain tea varietals like Assamica have more caffeine than others. Black teas are seen as high caffeine because they use Assamica varietals more than other types of tea. Processing tea does remove caffeine. However I wouldn't be surprised if it also removed some of the neurochemicals that modulate caffeines effects. So your results may vary.

hinkley 5y ago
I'm not sure it's so much removing as bioavailability. As I just stated up thread, black and green tea rely on autolysis - enzymes in the leaf decompose insoluble caffeine crystals into a water soluble form. L theanine I think may be some of both. The heating and drying processes also help define what kind of tea you get, and we know that some vitamins don't survive cooking all that well (famously, sailors and scurvy).

andjd 5y ago

My suspicion here is that black tea, especially when prepared in the British style, has more caffeine per cup because it's brewed to be much stronger than green teas typically are. So both can be true, black tea typically has more caffeine per cup, but black tea leaves have less caffeine than green tea leaves when compared by weight or volume.

WillPostForFood 5y ago

Generalizations like this are always dicey, especially when the statements are so imprecise. Is he talking about green tea vs black tea leafs, or prepared green vs black tea? When he says green tea, what variety?

gwern 5y ago

A while back I looked at a few chemistry papers on measuring caffeine content in a variety of tea leaves, in the hopes of finding some low-caffeine green/oolong I could drink late at night. The impression I got was that there is so much variation batch to batch or year to year (not to mention preparation) that it largely swamps any attempt to say 'Darjeeling has less caffeine than Gunpowder Green'. There may be average differences but it's not too useful to know. Whether Red or Green, that tea could still easily be one that will keep you up if you drink it at 10PM. Ah well. (And decaffeinated teas are uniformly garbage-tasting, so that's no, ahem, solution.)