What does science say about vitamin C and tea?

In this article, we’re going back to the fundamentals to explain what vitamin C is and how it relates to the true tea plant, Camellia sinensis. We’ll explore the relationship between tea and vitamin C, reveal the synergistic benefits of combining vitamin C with tea, and explain how to protect the vitamin C in tea from breaking down.

Next, we’ll show you what mistakes can decrease the level of vitamin C in your tea.

And make sure to read until the end, as we’ll reveal which vitamin C tea ranks highest based on studies.

Without further ado, let’s get brewing.

 

Vitamin C and Tea: Back to Basics

What Is Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is an antioxidant your body needs to stay healthy.

It helps protect your cells from damage caused by unstable molecules called free radicals. These free radicals are naturally produced in the body during metabolism and can also come from pollution, UV rays, or stress.

Vitamin C supports your immune system, keeps your skin and blood vessels strong, and protects cells from oxidative damage.

Because your body cannot produce vitamin C on its own, you must get it from food sources like fruits and vegetables.

But does tea have vitamin C? The answer is yes, especially when it comes to certain types of green tea.

Camellia sinensis 101

Camellia sinensis is the plant that all true tea comes from.

Whether it’s green tea, black tea, white tea, or oolong tea, they are all produced from this same plant, just processed differently. If you’d like a deeper explanation of how these teas differ, explore 👉 What Is Green Tea?

The leaves naturally contain beneficial compounds, including antioxidants and small amounts of vitamin C in tea, which contribute to tea’s overall health profile. For a scientific breakdown of these compounds, see 👉 Chemical Composition of Green Tea.

Keep in mind that chamomile, hibiscus, mint, or turmeric are infusions, not true tea. For the rest of this article, we’ll focus only on true teas made from Camellia sinensis.

So, Why Does Tea Have Vitamin C?

The tea plant produces vitamin C as a protective antioxidant. During photosynthesis, reactive oxygen species are formed, and vitamin C helps shield the leaf from damage.

The younger leaves are more vulnerable, which means they contain higher concentrations of green tea vitamin C. Teas made from younger leaves, such as sencha, gyokuro, and matcha, tend to contain more vitamin C.

This is one reason why green tea with vitamin C often stands out nutritionally compared to more heavily processed teas.

 

The Benefits of Vitamin C with Tea

So are there benefits of combining green tea and vitamin C? When you add vitamin C to your green tea, you are enhancing the health benefits of an already healthy drink. Here are a few reasons why you may want to add a little squeeze of lemon to your cup of tea.

Increasing Antioxidants

In addition to being an antioxidant itself, vitamin C can also help protect green tea catechins from breaking down during digestion. This allows more of these antioxidants to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

Slows oxidations

Vitamin C also lowers the pH of the drink, creating a more acidic environment that slows oxidation.

Better Iron Absorption

One of the most cited side effects of green tea consumption is that it can inhibit the body’s ability to absorb iron for up to an hour after drinking it. Vitamin C appears to blunt this effect, so if you combine green tea and vitamin C, you may be able to absorb more iron from your next meal.

You may want to try enjoying your green tea with vitamin C to get even more health benefits!

 

The Best Vitamin C Tea

What is the best vitamin C tea?

If you’ve read our other articles, you can probably guess the answer is matcha.

Matcha contains the highest concentration of nutrients, including green tea vitamin C, because you consume the entire leaf rather than just an infusion.

Even though vitamin C is water-soluble, some of it remains inside the leaf when brewing loose-leaf tea. With matcha, all of the vitamin C in tea is consumed.

Do Other Teas Contain Vitamin C?

So does tea have vitamin C if it’s in loose-leaf form? Yes, but as we will cover in the next section, it can be finicky. Depending on how it’s processed and how it’s brewed, you can really lower the vitamin C in tea.

 

What Lowers Vitamin C in Tea

So now that we’ve explained the best vitamin C tea, let’s briefly go over what can lower the vitamin C in tea.

Oxidation

One major factor that lowers the vitamin C in tea is oxidation. This is the process used to make black and oolong teas, and it’s why unoxidized teas like white tea and green tea tend to be the highest in vitamin C.

During the oxidation process, the polyphenols in the tea leaf are converted into theaflavins and thearubigins. The leaf changes from green to brown, and the flavor trades these fresh and vegetal notes for warmer notes of caramel and chocolate. The antioxidant content of the leaf is also reduced, including vitamin C.

Temperature

In addition to oxidation, the brewing temperature can also reduce the vitamin C in tea. Vitamin C begins to degrade when exposed to heat, and the rate of degradation increases as temperature rises. Hot water also exposes the tea to more oxygen, which decreases the effectiveness of the vitamin C. To preserve vitamin C in tea, it’s also important to control brewing time, which we explain in How Long to Steep Green Tea.

This is a double-edged sword because hotter water extracts the vitamin C in tea more effectively, but it also damages the potency of that vitamin C. The reason matcha behaves differently is because it doesn’t need to be extracted, so you can use cooler water and still get all of the vitamin C.

Fermentation

Fermentation can actually increase vitamin C in some cases. It may increase vitamin C in teas like kombucha because the live bacteria and yeast work in an acidic liquid environment that can produce, release, and protect vitamin C as the tea ferments.

This does not extend to pu-erh teas, however, only fermented liquid teas like kombucha.

 

List of Tea and Vitamin C Content

Here is a chart that explains the different types of teas and their vitamin C content.

The reason green tea and vitamin C seem to go hand in hand is that green tea is unoxidized.

During the oxidation process used to make black tea and oolong tea, the vitamin C content is reduced.

This chart shows the total vitamin C content in 5 grams of leaves, but it’s important to remember that with leaf teas, not all of it ends up in your cup.

This is why matcha comes out on top when it comes to vitamin C, because all of the vitamin C in the leaves gets consumed.

 

Final Thoughts

So if you want to get the benefits of vitamin C and green tea, your best bet is to go for a tea like matcha.

This tea is unoxidized, made from young leaves, and can be prepared at lower temperatures.

If you really want to boost the benefits, you can combine green tea and vitamin C and squeeze a little lemon into your matcha. You can also experiment with citrus-based drinks like Matcha Tonic.

Finally, when you drink matcha, you are consuming the entire leaf.

This means you get more caffeine, more theanine, and more vitamin C per sip of this tea than with any other!

If you want to try the best pesticide-free matcha we’ve found during our travels around Japan, you can browse our website. If you’re searching for the highest quality options, explore Best Green Tea.