Tea vs Coffee: Which Has More Caffeine?

Per a 240 ml serving, cold brew contains 200 mg of caffeine — more than any 240 ml tea listed in the dataset.

• 200 mg — caffeine in 240 ml cold brew (highest 240 ml coffee here); nitro cold brew is 215 mg.
• 85 mg — yerba mate (240 ml), the tea-like drink with the most caffeine in this dataset.
• 47–50 mg — typical 240 ml black teas (English Breakfast ~50 mg, Earl Grey ~47 mg).
• 400 mg/day — FDA recommended maximum for healthy adults; pregnancy guidance is ~200 mg/day.

Caffeine basics: how tea and coffee compare

Caffeine content depends on botanical source, preparation, and serving size. On a per-240 ml basis, coffees in the dataset range from 3 mg (decaf) to 200+ mg (cold brew), while common steeped teas fall between 16 mg (white tea) and 85 mg (yerba mate, treated here as a tea-substitute).

Labelling and government sources such as USDA FoodData Central supply many of these values; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and medical bodies like Mayo Clinic set safety guidance used below.

Caffeine levels in common teas

Values per 240 ml (dataset):

Caffeine content across popular coffee preparations

Coffee shows wider variation because brewing method, extraction time and roast affect concentration. Key dataset values (serving sizes included):

Why these numbers vary: extraction, leaf vs bean, and portion

Factors that raise or lower caffeine per cup:

• Brewing time and temperature — longer, hotter extraction gives more caffeine (cold brew is long extraction at low temperature but uses higher coffee-to-water ratios).
• Tea leaf form — matcha uses powdered whole leaf, so 1 tsp delivers ~70 mg; steeped green tea extracts far less.
• Bean/leaf amount and grind size — fine espresso grinds and concentrated shots produce high mg per ml.
• Serving size — a grande or large drink multiplies the total caffeine; e.g., Starbucks Pike Place (473 ml) = 310 mg.

Caffeine decay: how much remains hours after a drink

Population-average half-life ≈ 5.7 hours. Use the dataset dose and the decay approximations below to estimate remaining caffeine: ~69% at 3 h, ~48% at 6 h, ~33% at 9 h, ~23% at 12 h.

Health, safety, and timing vs sleep

Guidance: FDA cites up to 400 mg/day as generally safe for most healthy adults; many organizations advise limiting to ~200 mg/day during pregnancy, and the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages caffeine for adolescents. High single doses (several hundred mg) can cause palpitations, anxiety, and sleep disruption. If you are pregnant, have heart disease, anxiety disorders, or are taking interacting medications, consult your clinician.

Practical timing: because measurable caffeine remains 6–12 hours later, avoid late-afternoon high-caffeine drinks (a 200 mg cold brew still leaves ~46 mg at 12 h for the average person) to protect sleep.

Managing intake and next steps

To compare beverages for your routine, track exact servings and timings; CoffeeLog can log servings and compute daily totals so you see how close you are to 400 mg (or your personal limit). For children and teens follow AAP guidance; for pregnancy follow your obstetrician's advice.

Authoritative references used: USDA FoodData Central values, FDA safety limits, EFSA assessments, Mayo Clinic patient guidance, American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for youth.

Bottom line

Coffee generally contains more caffeine per serving than steeped tea; the strongest 240 ml coffee here (cold brew at 200 mg) far exceeds typical 240 ml teas (white to yerba mate range 16–85 mg). Individual choice should consider serving size, brewing method, and timing relative to sleep.

Which tea preparation gives the highest caffeine per 240 ml serving?

Yerba mate delivers the most caffeine per 240 ml among the teas in the dataset: 85 mg per 240 ml (USDA FoodData Central). Matcha is the next-highest tea-style option at 70 mg per 240 ml (USDA FoodData Central).

Concentration is milligrams of caffeine per 100 milliliters. The dataset lists yerba mate at 85 mg per 240 ml, which equals 35.4 mg/100 ml, and matcha at 70 mg per 240 ml, which equals 29.2 mg/100 ml (USDA FoodData Central).

If you want the single-most-caffeinated tea-like drink in a standard 240 ml cup, choose yerba mate (85 mg/240 ml as recorded in the dataset); if you want a whole-leaf powder option, choose matcha (70 mg/240 ml as recorded in the dataset). For practical brewing comparison pages see our guide to Yerba Mate: Complete Caffeine Guide and the Does Matcha Have Caffeine? guide for scoop-to-cup conversion tips.

How do energy drinks and caffeine pills compare with tea and coffee for a single serving?

Many energy drinks and caffeine pills deliver far higher single-serving doses than typical teas: for example, Bang contains 300 mg per 473 ml and 5-Hour Energy contains 200 mg per 57 ml in the dataset (USDA FoodData Central). By contrast, a 240 ml black tea has about 47 mg and a 240 ml cold brew coffee has 200 mg (USDA FoodData Central).

Serving dose is the total milligrams of caffeine in one commercially defined serving. The dataset lists Bang at 300 mg per 473 ml and 5-Hour Energy at 200 mg per 57 ml, so a single Bang serving is roughly six times the caffeine of a 240 ml black tea (USDA FoodData Central).

When choosing between products remember EFSA and FDA guidance: EFSA's 2015 opinion identifies 200 mg as a high single dose to treat with caution and lists 200 mg/day for pregnancy safety (European Food Safety Authority), while the FDA cites 400 mg/day as generally safe for healthy adults (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). If you aim to avoid high single doses, compare exact servings using our side-by-side drink comparison tool.

What happens to total caffeine if I drink coffee and tea within an hour of each other?

Caffeine from separate servings adds together as an absolute milligram total, and the body eliminates that total according to first-order kinetics; you should treat multiple drinks as a single cumulative dose for safety planning. For example, a 240 ml pour over (145 mg) followed one hour later by a 240 ml black tea (47 mg) creates a combined intake of 192 mg immediately after the second drink (USDA FoodData Central).

Additive dosing is when milligrams of caffeine from separate servings sum to a single total for elimination and safety limits. Using this site's decay model (population-average half-life 5.7 hours), remaining caffeine can be computed by D × 0.5^(hours/5.7) for each dose and then summed; the calculator at our half-life calculator automates this math.

Showed arithmetic: pour over 145 mg at t=0 and black tea 47 mg at t=1 h (dataset values, USDA FoodData Central). Six hours after the pour-over (i.e., 5 hours after the tea), the pour-over component is 145 × 0.5^(6/5.7) ≈ 145 × 0.482 ≈ 69.9 mg remaining, and the tea component is 47 × 0.5^(5/5.7) ≈ 47 × 0.545 ≈ 25.6 mg remaining; total ≈ 95.5 mg remaining at that time using the site decay model. That arithmetic shows how two modest drinks sum and then decline rather than behaving independently for sleep and safety planning.

Which brewing tweaks raise a tea's caffeine most, and by how much in practice?

Using powdered whole-leaf tea (matcha) or increasing leaf-to-water ratio raises caffeine more than simply steeping longer; matcha at 70 mg per 240 ml (USDA FoodData Central) is roughly 2.5× the caffeine of steeped green tea at 28 mg per 240 ml (USDA FoodData Central). Hotter water and longer steep times also extract more caffeine, but increasing the mass of leaf or using whole-leaf powder produces the largest, most predictable gain per cup.

Extraction is the transfer of caffeine from the leaf or grounds into the brewing water. In the dataset a single teaspoon of matcha (70 mg/240 ml) contains substantially more caffeine than a brewed green tea cup (28 mg/240 ml), because matcha is powdered leaf suspended in the liquid rather than a steeped infusion (USDA FoodData Central).

Practical rule: if you double the amount of leaf in the same volume you should expect roughly double the caffeine, since total caffeine scales with mass of plant material; because the dataset lists matcha and brewed green tea separately, use our matcha latte guide or the green tea caffeine guide to translate teaspoons and grams into milligrams for your recipes.

How should I pick drinks to stay under specific limits like pregnancy or daily safety caps?

To stay under EFSA and ACOG pregnancy guidance of ~200 mg/day, avoid any single 240 ml serving listed at 200 mg or higher (for example, a 240 ml cold brew at 200 mg in the dataset would already reach that pregnancy limit) and plan totals accordingly (European Food Safety Authority; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists). For most healthy adults the FDA's 400 mg/day ceiling gives more room, but you should still add exact servings because a single large serving such as Starbucks Pike Place Grande (310 mg per 473 ml in the dataset) consumes most of that limit (U.S. Food and Drug Administration; USDA FoodData Central).

A daily limit is the recommended maximum total milligrams of caffeine per day. Use concrete examples from the dataset: a 240 ml latte at 68 mg plus a 240 ml black tea at 47 mg totals 115 mg (USDA FoodData Central), safely below 200 mg pregnancy guidance, whereas a single 57 ml 5-Hour Energy (200 mg) equals the pregnancy single-day cap (USDA FoodData Central; European Food Safety Authority).

For routine tracking and timing consider our tools: the latest cup before bedtime tool uses your bedtime and consumed mg to recommend a cutoff, and if you want automatic logging CoffeeLog can register each serving for you and keep a running total; for manual comparisons use our drink comparison.

Bottom line

Per the dataset and USDA FoodData Central, the tea-style drinks with the most caffeine per standard 240 ml serving are yerba mate at 85 mg per 240 ml and matcha at 70 mg per 240 ml (USDA FoodData Central). Per the same dataset, the strongest 240 ml coffee here is cold brew at 200 mg and nitro cold brew at 215 mg (USDA FoodData Central), so coffee typically supplies more caffeine per same-volume serving than steeped tea.

Safety limits to compare to these numbers: the FDA states up to 400 mg/day is generally safe for healthy adults (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), and EFSA and obstetrics bodies identify 200 mg/day as the pregnancy cap and caution about high single doses (European Food Safety Authority; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists). Use the dataset values—for example, 240 ml cold brew = 200 mg, 240 ml yerba mate = 85 mg, 240 ml black tea ≈ 47–50 mg—as your planning units and consult the linked tools and guides to choose beverages that keep you safely under whichever cap applies to you.