The numbers, per cup (rough ranges — brewing moves them):

• Coffee, for scale — around 90–100 mg
• Black tea — 40–60 mg
• Oolong — 30–50 mg
• Green — 20–45 mg
• White — 15–40 mg, and not reliably low (more on that below)
• Matcha — 60 mg and up; you’re drinking the whole leaf
• Herbal, rooibos & fruit — zero, naturally

Brewing moves the number more than the tea type. Those ranges overlap because the real dials are leaf amount, water heat, and time — a long-steeped green can out-caffeinate a quick black. Caffeine also leaves the leaf fast, so the first steep carries most of it; later re-steeps are naturally gentler.

Two myths worth retiring. First, “white tea is low in caffeine” — the plant actually guards its young buds with extra caffeine, so a Silver Needle can rival a black. Second, the famous “rinse away the caffeine” trick: a thirty-second rinse removes perhaps a tenth of it, not the eighty percent the internet promises.

The feel is its own story. Tea’s caffeine travels with L-theanine, an amino acid unique to the leaf — which is why many drinkers describe tea’s lift as steadier and softer than coffee’s.