You are either a coffee drinker or a tea drinker — and they will fight each other over which is better. In an effort for us all to get along, let’s focus on tea. Like with coffee, if you don’t drink tea regularly, you don’t know how many options there are. While that’s what true tea drinkers live for, it could be confusing for someone brewing their first pot. Here is a rundown of some of the types of tea if you want to switch from coffee grounds to tea leaves.
Basic types of tea
Green tea
One of the most popular teas hailing from Japan and China, green tea has a calm, delicate flavor and brews a pale green or slightly yellow color. The leaves are left to whither for a few hours after being plucked, so they are fresh but do not undergo the full oxidation process, which gives you that gorgeous green color when brewed.
You’ll get roughly 30-50 mg of caffeine per glass of green tea.
Black tea
Made from fully oxidized leaves that come mostly from India and China, black tea is the most popular kind in the Western part of the world, probably because it has the most caffeine out of all the teas. When brewed, it has a darker color and a more bold flavor, which makes it great for iced teas.
Black tea has around 40-60 mg of caffeine per glass.
White tea
If you want a light, sweet, floral flavor, white tea is the way to go. Made with young leaves from the Fujian province in China that haven’t been oxidized, (or have been minimally oxidized) the crisp finish of white tea is highly sought after.
White tea only has 25-40 mg of caffeine per glass.
More complex teas
Pu-erh tea
Here’s where things start to get more interesting. Pu-erh tea completely changes flavor profiles depending on how the leaves are processed. Raw leaves make it more like green tea, whereas aged leaves make it come out like black tea. The leaves are piled and aged (or not) in caves or underground rooms for years to achieve the wanted palate. We can thank the Yunnan province of China for this versatile plant.
Ripe has around 60-70 mg of caffeine per 8oz glass.
Raw contains about 30-45 mg per glass.
Oolong tea
Think of oolong as a nice in-between option to green and black teas. If black tea is oxidized and green tea is oxidized a little, oolong is kind of oxidized. You’ll find a taste stronger than white tea, with a smooth finish. It brews as an amber or light green color and is produced in Tawain and China.
A glass of oolong will have about 50-75 mg of caffeine.
Rooibos tea
Coming from South Africa and nicknamed the “red bush tea” for the color the leaves turn after the oxidation process, rooibos tea gives a full, nutty flavor when brewed. You might detect notes of honey, vanilla, and caramel in there, in addition to other spices. With no caffeine, this is the best tea to use as a base for different drinks, like chai.
Rooibos has no caffeine.
Mate tea
Mate tea is a tea you should put in your rotation. It contains vitamin C, trace minerals, and natural chemicals to calm and relax a person. It contains xanthines (part of the caffeine family), so you will get a little pick-me-up from it. Mate has an earthy, roasted flavor that could taste grassy depending on how you steep the leaves, and is native to South America.
There are only about 35 mg of caffeine per glass of mate tea.
Other types of tea
Herbal tea
You’ve probably picked up one of those mixed herbal boxes of teas with the bear on them. We all love a good herbal tea, but it’s not tea, exactly. Herbal teas are more of a blend of spices and herbs to create all kinds of flavors, which are all caffeine-free. With an almost limitless variety of tastes, you could have mint, ginger, berry, or floral as a few profiles for herbal tea.
There is no caffeine in herbal teas.
Matcha tea
From ice cream to desserts to coffee, matcha has been taking all kinds of food by storm over the last few years. But it’s been a tea staple for centuries in China, and then Japan, made from a powder out of freshly dried leaves. That bright green color that gives it away is due to the high amount of chlorophyll in the plant.
Matcha has around 38–176 mg of caffeine in a glass.
Purple tea
This newer tea comes from Keyna and the Assam region of India, and its leaves are produced like oolong. In a manner close to green tea, purple tea gets its name from — you guessed it — the color the plant brews. With a clean, floral taste, purple tea is full of antioxidants and is a solid, low-caffeine choice.
Purple tea contains about 8 to 11 mg of caffeine per glass.
There is nothing like a freshly brewed cup of tea, a rainy day, and a good book. And if you can’t tell if your tea is white, purple, black, green, oolong, or rooibos, well, we can’t blame you. There are so many types of tea, and we barely scratched the surface. But now you have enough information to understand if the one you’re drinking has caffeine and what flavor you want to try next.
