Does Earl Grey tea have caffeine

Apparently tea contains more caffeine than coffee. Why is it that coffee is typically so much more stimulating than tea?

Nick, London UK

• Tea leaves have more caffeine than coffee beans before they are brewed. Prepared, however, tea is diluted quite a bit more than most coffees. Each will vary depending on how strong you like it, though. I understand also that the caffeine content in tea is extracted during the first ten seconds of brewing. So if you're looking for more of a jolt, don't steep the tea for ages, just use more tea leaves.

  Elfling, New York USA

• Unmade tea contains more caffeine than unmade coffee, however when you make the drink lots of caffeine is left in the tea leaves you throw away leaving less in the tea you drink than in coffee.

  Sue, Cambridge uk

• maybe because tea contains half the caffeine of coffee according to a reputable source (my PG Tips packet)

  Anthony Duthoit, Pewsey Wilts

• The average cup of tea contains about half as much caffeine as the average cup of instant coffee, and the average cup of instant coffee contains about half as much caffeine as a cup of proper espresso coffee. So I think the idea that tea contains more caffeine that coffee is an urban myth (unless, it's say, gramme for gramme, rather than cup for cup, as it were).

  Joanne Sheppard, London Uk

• Coffee contains more caffeine. 60mg per cup, compared to 50mg for tea. These are typical values.

  Dermot Nolan, Oxford, UK

• Tea is also commonly drank white while coffee tends to be drunk black. As warm milk has sedative qualities it is reasonable to assume that this couteracts some of the effects of the caffeine

  Tom, London

• As well as caffeine, tea contains various tannins, which serve to slow down the absorbtion of caffeine into the bloodstream.

  Doug Jones, Warwick Bermuda

• I have heard that coffee contains stimulants other than caffeine... can anyone expand on this?

  James Hawk, Chiswick, London UK

• There is another factor here too. There is evidence to suggest that a higher proportion of the the caffine in tea (as opposed to coffee) is biochemically 'bound' leading to it being pharmacologically inactive.

  Stephen Marchant, Beaconsfield UK

• Nah, it isn't true.

  Danny Stevens, Nottingham

• Caffeine is not "bound" to anything in tea, at least not in the sense you are thinking. It is just as active in tea as coffee. Tannins do not "slow the absorption" of caffeine. I'd ask you to find some sort of source for that, but its impossible because you made it up completely. Tea contains more caffeine per gram of loose tea as compared to per gram of ground coffee, but a cup of tea uses far less "material" than a cup of coffee. A cup of brewed coffee made by standard directions has 100-200mg of caffeine, a cup of brewed black tea made by standard directions has 40-75mg of caffeine. All of this varies when you just add different amounts of tea or coffee.

  Erol Bakkalbasi, Houston, TX USA

• I keep hearing different things about the brewing time for tea. If you let the tea bag steep for longer, will this result in a more or less caffeinated drink? Are there any other ways to maximize the caffeine in tea? thanks

  student without a coffee machine, pinnacle usa

• Why do you accuse Tom of "making it up, " Danny? The assertion that tannic acids deleteriously affect caffeine in beverages is widely attested-alternately as; binding to/ nutralising the caffeine molecule, countering the stimulative properties, or as reducing the degree of bio-uptake. I am not a 'chemist' (US usage), so I have no idea if any of those claims are consistent with the scientific literature. However Tom certainly did NOT pull the idea out of his ear for this discussion board! (JFGI before accusing someone of lying, here's one of many pages repeating the claim: )

  Tobias, Honolulu, US

• The importance of the brewing time of tea, (and other factors which granny always insisted on too), is simply that the flavours, perhaps some of the caffeine too, is locked away inside the cells in the dried leaf and these must be physically ruptured to get them out. The active ingredients of coffee are simply washed off the ground powder after it has been roasted. To cause the cells to burst you MUST use BOILING...