Is Green Tea Caffeine Free?

All the health conscious people seem to be into green tea these days. Green tea seems to be beneficial in preventing or even curing various ailments. But, is it free of caffeine? It almost sparked off a debate when this question was raised. But, the fact remains that green tea does contain caffeine. This gives birth to some more important questions regarding the content of caffeine in it. What astounds us is that many believe, this particular fact negates all the benefits that this wonder tea otherwise puts forth to us.

Green Tea and Caffeine: The Relation

Well, the fact is that green tea and caffeine go hand in hand. A normal dry leaf of the green tea may contain more caffeine than coffee by dry weight. However, it is generally found that a cup of coffee contains more caffeine than a cup of green tea, or any tea for that matter. The main reason behind this is that the tea leaves are strained before serving, by which some portion of the caffeine is discarded along with the leaves, which is not done in case of coffee. So basically, one needs to remember that lesser the green tea leaves you use, less is the caffeine content in your cup of tea. There are a few more factors on which the caffeine content in your cup of green tea depends:

Size and Type of the Tea Leaf: Caffeine content in green tea depends largely on the size and type of the tea leaf. Larger the size of the leaf, lesser is the caffeine content. The highest levels of caffeine in green tea leaves are found in a branch's top two leaves and a bud. On the other hand, green tea leaves which are picked from the lower parts of the bush have been found to have much less caffeine content as compared to the ones picked from the higher parts.

Preparation Procedure: More the times of steeping, lesser will be the caffeine content. Take this following example. An average cup of green tea brewed with a single steeping can have as much as 32 mg of caffeine in 100 ml of water. If the strained tea leaves are reused again, the preparation will contain only 12 mg and further usages can drastically bring down the caffeine content. Moreover, green tea prepared on a high flame, or in a wok, will have less caffeine than the one prepared on slow flame.

Shape and Size of the Container: This will also influence a tea's caffeine content. Larger the area of circulation, more caffeine gets drawn from the green tea leaves.

The Benefits

As compared to black tea, coffee or soda, green tea has a very steady stimulating effect because of caffeine and two caffeine metabolites (caffeine-like substances) - theophylline, a stronger stimulant substance than caffeine, and theobromine, which is a slightly weaker stimulant than caffeine. This combination is responsible for not making you feel nervous, or annoying headaches.

An average cup of brewed coffee can contain between 60 to 160 mg of caffeine. A can of soda has been proved to provide 40 to 70 mg, while a cup of brewed black tea results in 20 to 90 mg. While green tea on the other hand has caffeine in the range of 6 to 35 mg only.

What about Decaffeinated Green Tea?

The concept of decaffeination - making green tea caffeine free, although prevalent in the west or even China, is unheard of in the home of green tea - Japan. The main reason being the fact that decaffeinated green tea is naive and devoid of all the benefits. Caffeine, along with its other metabolites, is the mainstay of the beneficial character of this tea. The process of making green tea caffeine free robs tea leaves off these metabolites, obviously along with the caffeine itself.

So, does it mean that caffeine is a mandatory constituent of green tea? Not necessarily. Take some high quality loose leaves of Japanese green tea. Ensure that the leaves are very fresh, preferably from the first harvest. As almost all the caffeine is extracted during the first infusion, dump the first infusion and then immediately re-brew using the strained tea leaves. Although, doing this will rid the tea of its aroma, it will surely taste better than the best decaffeinated green tea.

So, if green tea caffeine free? No. But, why does it need to be caffeine free? The benefits of green tea revolve around these constituents, and hence, it is advised not to do away with these to maintain the benefits this truly wonderful tea has.