Caffeine in tea: the honest ladder from herbal to matcha
FindMeTea Editorial Team · Published 2026-08-04 · Updated 2026-09-09
Ranked honestly, caffeine in tea is a four-rung ladder. Rooibos and most herbal infusions sit at zero. White teas and roasted or twig greens like hojicha sit low. Most everyday teas — sencha, Earl Grey, oolongs, mate — cluster in the middle. And a small top shelf — matcha, shaded gyokuro, Assam-style breakfast blacks — sits highest. The same leaf can land in different places depending on how much you use, how hot your water is and how long you steep, which is exactly why we publish levels instead of milligrams.
Why levels, not milligrams
Milligram charts look scientific and disagree with each other constantly, because a 'cup of green tea' is not one thing: double the leaf or double the steep and you have changed the number. So our catalog rates each of its 141 teas on a relative scale from 0 to 3, as prepared the way that tea is normally prepared. It is a reading you can actually act on — dots, not decimals — and it can never contradict a tea's own page, because it is the same data.
The ladder, rung by rung
Level 0 — nothing at all: rooibos, chamomile, peppermint, hibiscus and most herbal blends. This is the largest group in our catalog — 46 teas — which makes caffeine-free evenings easy to furnish. One honest note: 'decaf' black or green tea is not level 0; trace caffeine always remains.
Level 1 — light: white teas like Pai Mu Tan, and the gentler side of green — roasted hojicha, twig kukicha, rice-cut genmaicha, everyday bancha. Comfortable afternoon territory.
Level 2 — the everyday middle: sencha, Earl Grey, most oolongs, shou pu-erh and yerba mate. This is where most of the catalog lives — 67 of the 141 teas.
Level 3 — the top shelf: matcha (you drink the whole powdered leaf, not an infusion of it), gyokuro (shading the plant concentrates its strength), Assam, English Breakfast and Darjeeling, young sheng pu-erh. Eighteen teas earn this rung.
Two results surprise almost everyone. White tea is not the lowest — our whites sit at level 1, a rung above the herbal zero. And 'green tea' spans three rungs, from kukicha at 1 to sencha at 2 to gyokuro and matcha at 3: processing and growing decide the rung; leaf color barely predicts it.
The tea caffeine chart, family by family
Same 0–3 scale, sorted by family instead of by rung, straight from the catalog. Herbal infusions: level 0 for 42 of 44 blends — the two exceptions are guayusa, a caffeinated Amazonian holly, and an energy blend built around it. Rooibos: level 0, both blends, no exceptions. White tea: level 1, all 6. Green tea: level 1 to 3 across 27 teas — level 1 covers hojicha, kukicha, bancha and genmaicha, level 3 is gyokuro alone, and everything else in between sits at 2. Chai blends: level 0 to 3 across 4 — rooibos and decaf chai read 0, a green-tea-base chai reads 2, and black-tea masala chai reads 3; the base leaf sets the level, not the spices. Oolong: level 2, all 13. Yellow tea: level 2, all 3. Yerba mate: level 2, the one caffeinated infusion in the catalog that is not a true Camellia tea. Hei-cha (fermented dark tea): level 2, all 3. Pu-erh: level 2 to 3 across 3 teas — young, unaged sheng is the one at 3; aged sheng and shou both settle at 2. Black tea: level 2 to 3 across 34 teas — 14 breakfast-style blends (Assam, English and Irish Breakfast, the Ceylon estates, Darjeeling and others) earn the top rung, the rest sit at 2. Matcha: level 3, the single tea that never reads lower, because you drink the whole leaf rather than an infusion of it.
Working the ladder in practice
Mornings take care of themselves — levels 2 and 3 are natural there. The afternoon is where the ladder earns its keep: stepping down to level 1 keeps the ritual without the buzz, and our guide to low-caffeine teas for the afternoon has specific picks. As a rule of thumb, shorter steeps and cooler water also extract less caffeine from the same leaf. And if caffeine tends to cost you sleep, make everything after mid-afternoon a level 0 and browse the full catalog by goal for evening cups you will actually look forward to.
One last honest note: the ladder is a starting point, not a verdict. Your own sensitivity, your teaspoon and your steep time all tilt it. Read it as a map for the day — the louder rungs while the sun is high, the quiet ones as it sets — and let your evenings tell you where your personal cutoff lives.
FAQ
Is there a tea caffeine chart by type?
Yes — this post is it, built on a relative 0–3 scale instead of milligrams. Level 0 holds rooibos and 42 of our 44 herbal blends; level 1 the 6 white teas plus roasted or twig greens like hojicha and kukicha; level 2 the everyday middle, where 67 of our 141 teas live; and level 3 the top shelf of matcha, gyokuro, young sheng pu-erh and the 14 breakfast-style blacks. The family-by-family section above walks through every family in the catalog.
Which tea has the most caffeine?
On our 0–3 scale, the top rung holds matcha and gyokuro alongside Assam-style breakfast blacks and young sheng pu-erh. Matcha is there for a structural reason: you drink the whole powdered leaf rather than an infusion of it.
Does herbal tea have caffeine?
True herbals — chamomile, peppermint, rooibos, hibiscus — have none at all. The caffeinated exception people forget is yerba mate: an infusion, not a Camellia tea, but solidly mid-ladder at level 2.
Is white tea the lowest-caffeine tea?
No — that is one of the most persistent tea myths. Our white teas rate level 1, above the herbal zero, and roasted or twig greens like hojicha and kukicha sit just as low.
How can I cut caffeine without giving up tea?
Step down a rung instead of quitting: hojicha or genmaicha where you drank sencha, white where you drank black, and level 0 after mid-afternoon. Shorter steeps and cooler water help too. Decaf works, but it is never a true zero.
Does masala chai have caffeine?
Yes. Classic masala chai is built on black tea, so it reads level 3 in our catalog — the base leaf sets the level, not the spices. The same spices over other bases land elsewhere: a green-tea chai reads 2, and rooibos or decaf chai reads 0.
How much caffeine does sencha have?
Sencha — Japanese sencha included — sits at level 2 of 3: the everyday middle of the ladder, alongside Earl Grey and most oolongs. If you want the same green-tea shelf with less, hojicha, kukicha, bancha and genmaicha all sit a rung lower, at level 1.
Is Assam high in caffeine?
Yes. Assam is one of the breakfast-style black teas on the top rung, level 3 of 3, together with English Breakfast and Darjeeling — which is exactly why it suits the first cup of the day rather than the fourth.
How much caffeine does Golden Monkey black tea have?
Golden Monkey reads level 2 of 3 in our catalog: a black tea in the everyday middle, one rung below the breakfast-style blacks like Assam that earn the top shelf.
Does chamomile (manzanilla) have caffeine?
None at all. Chamomile — manzanilla, if you shop for it in Spanish — is an herbal infusion from a different plant entirely, so it sits at level 0. That makes it a natural evening cup.
Does chrysanthemum tea have caffeine?
No. Chrysanthemum is brewed from flowers, not from the tea plant, and like almost every herbal infusion in our catalog it reads level 0 — caffeine-free at any hour.