People usually believe that caffeine content is more in coffee than tea, right? However, this is not exactly the case. Brewed coffee is rich in caffeine as compared to steeped tea. Do you know why? It is because coffee is much stronger beverage than tea. But, in raw stage, coffee beans have less caffeine than tea leaves.
Caffeine Content is Higher in Tea Leaves than Coffee Beans
Tea leaves, before brewing, have greater concentration of caffeine as compared to coffee beans. Caffeine is actually a natural pesticide present in both coffee and tea. Now, leaves of camellia sinensis plants, the species of tea plant, contain more caffeine than the beans in coffea Arabica plant.
Brewed Coffee is Rich in Caffeine as Compared to Steeped Tea
When you brew a cup of coffee and a cup of tea, you will have more caffeine in the coffee cup than the tea cup. It is simply because coffee is stronger than tea. by only looking at a cup of each of these beverages, you can understand the difference. Tea is more transparent than brewed coffee. You can see the bottom of the tea cup but not the coffee cup.
Why is the coffee a stronger beverage? Well, during brewing, coffee is extracted at a much greater amount than tea. though there are varieties of ways of preparing both coffee and tea, but coffee is usually fresher, brewed for a long time and also brewed at high temperature. That is why coffee is so strong.
An interesting fact is, even steeping black tea for 5 minutes at high temperature you cannot extract as much caffeine as you can from coffee at such a high temperature.
Great Variation of Caffeine in Tea and Coffee
The thumb-rule says that caffeine content in coffee is two times more than tea. variation coffee is because there are two species of coffee plants. caffeine in Robusta varietals is twice more than Arabica varietals. Again, in teas, variation in caffeine level is because of the method of processing and harvesting season.
For instance, white, green and black teas are produced from same species of plant but they are plucked at different harvesting times. Hence, their caffeine content varies. Again, black blends are oxidized the most at the time of processing. As a result, more caffeine is extracted from this variant at the time of steeping.
So far as you consume both these beverages in moderate amount, tea and coffee are healthy. No matter what the caffeine content in the beverage is, your caffeine intake will be within limits.