Does oolong tea have caffeine? In this article, we’re going to find out. We’ll be taking a closer look at the oolong tea caffeine content and comparing it to other popular types of teas.
We’ll also see how the oolong tea caffeine content depending on picking, processing and brewing.
Let’s roll!
Does oolong tea have caffeine
So right off the bat, does oolong tea have caffeine? Yes! All true teas are made from the leaves of camelia sinensis, so they all contain caffeine in varying degrees.
Oolong contains somewhere in between 10mg-60mg of caffeine per serving. In a later section, we’re going to explore why the caffeine in oolong tea can vary so widely.
Japanese oolong caffeine
Japanese oolong is extremely rare, but we found a great one from Miyazaki Sabou in Southern Japan. This one is light, floral and fragrant just like a Taiwanese oolong, and it contains approximately 60mg of caffeine per serving.
Why does oolong tea have caffeine
So why does oolong tea have caffeine exactly? As we discussed before, oolong is made from the leaves of the tea plant - camelia sinensis. These leaves produce caffeine as a defense mechanism to protect themselves from insects.
The younger, more tender tea leaves produce more caffeine. Oolong is almost always made out of the older tea leaves, so the caffeine content is relatively low - but never zero. So why is oolong caffeinated? The secret is in the leaves!
Why oolong tea caffeine varies
As with all teas, the oolong caffeine can vary based on a few different factors. Here are some worth looking out for.
Cultivar
Just like wine is broken down into varietals, tea is broken down into cultivars (cultivated varietals). Each variety of tea plant produces slightly different flavors and nutrient profiles in its leaves.
High caffeine oolong cultivars are Qingxin, Jin Xuan and Tieguanyin. Low caffeine cultivars for oolong are Shui Xian, Rou Gui and the group of cultivars used to make Da Hong Pao.
Picking
Just like with any other tea, the oolong caffeine content can vary based on how it is picked. While oolong is mostly made using older tea leaves, there are a few more modern oolong styles that incorporate more tender buds, which will contain more caffeine.
Alishan, Lishan, Shan Lin Xi, modern green-style Tieguanyin and Jin Xuan (milk oolong) emphasize these vibrant, floral flavor profiles and therefore they use a slightly younger picking. These teas will be lower in caffeine compared to the Rou Gui, Da Hong Pao and Dancong oolong.
Roasting
Is oolong tea caffeinated even when its heavily roasted? Yes, but the amount is lower. How much caffeine in oolong tea can be influenced by the roasting process. Many oolong teas are charcoal roasted at a high heat to take on this dark and almost smoky flavor profile.
This high heat can strip away some of the caffeine on the leaf, and for that reason roasted oolong will be lower in caffeine than green oolong.
Caffeine in oolong tea compared to other teas
How much caffeine does oolong tea have compared to green tea and black tea? Oolong will have somewhere in between 58-72mg of caffeine per serving, which puts it in the middle range compared to other tea types.
Green tea
Green tea can have between 8-142mg of caffeine per serving, with the low end being for roasted stem teas and the high end being for gyokuro, a long shaded Japanese green tea.
Black tea
Black tea can have between 31mg and 96mg of caffeine per serving, with the lower end being for cheap tea bags and the higher end being for premium Darjeeling black tea.
White tea
White tea contains between 75-130mg of caffeine per serving, with the lower end being for leaf-heavy white teas like Shou Mei, and the higher end being for bud-heavy teas like Yinzhen.
How to control the amount of caffeine in oolong tea
You can also influence how much caffeine is in oolong by how you prepare the tea. If you want to increase the caffeine in oolong tea, you can play around with these parameters.
More leaves
Of course using more leaves will influence how much caffeine is in oolong tea. The guidelines we provide are for 5 grams of leaves, but if you use more leaf, you will increase the caffeine in your cup.
Hotter water
Hotter water extracts more from the tea leaves, especially caffeine. If you boil your tea leaves, you will extract far more caffeine than when you use a colder brewing temperature.
Longer brewing
A longer brewing time will also extract more caffeine from the leaves, so you’ll get more in your cup. If you are doing multiple infusions, this won’t matter as much, however because you’ll get all the caffeine eventually.
Broken leaves
If you break the oolong leaves before brewing the tea (as you might do in the Chaozhou style) this will increase the surface area of the tea leaves so the distraction will be more efficient.
Does oolong tea have caffeine? The final verdict
So does oolong have caffeine? The answer is clearly yes. All teas produced from the tea plant, camelia sinensis, will contain some level of caffeine. The caffeine level will vary based on how the tea is picked, processed and prepared.
Oolong tea sits in the middle of the caffeine spectrum, with darker roasted oolong having less caffeine, and greener, lighter oolongs having more caffeine.
