What has more caffeine? Tea or Coffee?
I always thought coffee had way more caffeine but a few people have now told me that tea actually has a lot more.
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
32 Answers
yup – tea…there are a bunch of varieties that are naturally without caffeine but i think theyre more the herbal ones…
now thinking of decaffeinated coffee >_< bleurk…
Green tea has a ton of caffeine.
redbush is caffeine free and really nice…
tea has about 7 times more caffeine than coffee itself, the only reason it’s called “tea” and not “coffee” being that it has even more teine (spelling?).
however, people tend to make coffee pretty strong (putting one or two spoonfuls per cup), yet tea really weak (often with only a teabag per pot), which is why the effect on your body is not as strong – also remember you swallow the ground coffee beans, but strain the tea leaves.
I’m pretty sure it’s coffee, although it’s hard to exactly measure due to steeping/brewing times, etc. This chart, this page, this page also say the same.
Coffee has more caffeine than tea.
Edit: This should read, brewed coffee has more caffeine than tea. The raw substances of both when compared show that tea has more caffeine than coffee. As someone else here has mentioned, we use more coffee grounds versus tea grounds to make each cup.
Swallow coffee beans? How do you make your coffee, @Jack79, with a colander?
@Jack79 : Lol. Last time I checked, I didn’t swallow any coffee gounds with my morning brew. That would be coffee maker user error.
@Jack79- Seven times? I don’t think so. Curious where you read that. Brewed coffee definitely has more caffeine than tea does, plus it tastes better.
Technically, “herbal tea” is a tisane.
I know, I know; it’s pedantic, but there we are.
A normal cup of coffee will generally have more caffeine than a normal cup of tea. Of course it depends on how strong you brew your drink.
Ive actually done some research on this, and the answer I came to is very similar to the one you’d find if you read through this thread – no one can agree!!!
I would have thought this would be an easily testable experiment but apparently there is no consensus.
Pound per pound tea has more but in a cup coffee, because we drink the coffee beans with the coffee but tea is diluted.
Once again, we don’t drink the coffee beans when we drink coffee. At least that’s how it’s supposed to be. If you drink the grounds, you aren’t making coffee right.
@dynamicduo
The grounds should be in the solution. It’s obvious there’s more caffeine in coffee you can taste that.
Grounds are left in the hot water while brewing and removed before consuming. Or, are passed through with hot water, which then trickles down into the coffee carafe. Grounds should never be served in coffee. This is an indicator of a broken machine, wrong filter, or incompetence.
@dynamicduo
Most people I know don’t have a machine we just put the grounds into the cup.
I was referring to instant coffee, not French (ie filter). I don’t drink coffee anyway. Turkish coffee (which is a powder) also ends up in your cup. The point is that the caffeine ends up in your body, whereas the tea leaves don’t.
Some more info (though wikipedia is no more official or reliable than fluther as a source):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine
There is a reason why I drink coffee and not tea. Caffeine. I’d like to agree with @dynamicduo on this one.
I also agree with @dynamicduo. You definitely shouldn’t be drinking ground coffee beans – they are discarded after the water has passed through them.
Instant coffee is another thing altogether, but when you’re dealing with actual ground coffee beans, you never drink/consume the grounds. This is why coffee machines come with filters, and why french presses push the ground coffee to the bottom, removing it from the liquid before you pour it.
@Myndecho That’s not the right way to brew coffee. You are not meant to consume the grounds, not like it’ll do you much ill, but they’re saved for the garden or discarded, not consumed. Honestly, it’s very much analogous to eating eggshells, in that both are parts of food but are not what are eaten themselves.
The proper way to prepare coffee is to steep the grounds in hot water such that the taste and caffeine (and other chems) are transferred into the water out of the grounds. Then, you filter the coffee to remove the now useless (for humans) grounds. I prefer using a French Press as it is small, easy to manage, and eco friendly (you don’t need to buy and dispose of a filter each time you make coffee).
Of course, your style of coffee certainly exists. I’ve heard it called cowboy’s coffee, as they simply put crushed beans into a pot on the fire. But with our modern technology, we don’t need to be so barbaric with our beans.
@Myndecho I have heard of making coffee directly from the grounds, but usually even when you make it that way, most people pour it through a seive or filter. I don’t think people in the US drink coffee made by directly putting the ground or crushed beans in the cup and pouring boiling water on it the way we do with tea leaves or tea bags.
@YARNLADY
Strange, everyone I know does it that way.
The issue is the effect of the caffeine and this has to do with the other ingredients. Tea has a somewhat weaker effect but it’s lasting longer.
@Myndecho Maybe it’s a regional thing. What part of the US do you live? Do you crush the beans or grind them before putting them in your cup? Do you drink the beans also, or just the coffee?
@Myndecho—Ho, Ho, Ho, you really had me going on that one. So when you said “we just put the grounds into the cup” you were talking about the dried instant coffee.
@YARNLADY
I was wondering why you thought it was strange why I did that :P
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
