All tea-based beverages contain caffeine. Aside from boosting alertness and enhancing flavor, caffeine also has diuretic properties and helps accelerate fat breakdown. However, drinking too much can easily lead to insomnia and heart palpitations, so intake should be moderated. Here are a few common Taiwanese teas with lower caffeine content that we’d like to introduce to you.
Factors That Influence Caffeine Levels in Tea
The caffeine content in tea is related to the tenderness of the leaves, the harvest season, the tea cultivar, and the manufacturing process.
- Leaf Tenderness: The younger and more tender the leaves, the higher the caffeine content; conversely, older leaves contain less.
- Harvest Season: Teas harvested in hotter weather with more sunlight have higher caffeine levels, making summer teas higher in caffeine than spring or winter teas.
- Cultivar: Large-leaf varieties contain more caffeine than small-leaf varieties.
- Processing: Roasted teas undergo the Maillard reaction, which helps reduce caffeine content.
In addition to the above points, the degree of sunlight exposure (stronger sun means more caffeine), tea leaf integrity (broken leaves release caffeine more easily), water temperature, and steeping time (higher water temperature and longer steeping time cause more caffeine to be released) also affect the amount of caffeine in tea.
Among Common Taiwanese Teas, Which Has the Lowest Caffeine?
Combining the factors mentioned above, choosing teas that are not too tender, harvested in spring or winter, made from small-leaf varieties, and subjected to a roasting process will result in lower caffeine content. Therefore, the following 2 types of tea are suitable for people who need to limit their caffeine intake:
- Roasted Teas: Such as Tieguanyin and heavily roasted Dongding Oolong. These are all small-leaf varieties that have gone through a roasting process, meaning the caffeine in the leaves has transformed and the content is already very low.
- Lightly Roasted High Mountain Spring Oolong: Most High Mountain Oolongs are small-leaf varieties, and the sunlight intensity in high mountain regions is not as strong as in the plains. With a moderate roast, the caffeine content can be significantly reduced.
Reducing Caffeine Extraction During Brewing
Aside from choosing teas with lower caffeine content, you can also reduce the extracted amount through your brewing method. Methods include using fewer tea leaves, shortening the steeping time, and lowering the water temperature.
Of the three methods mentioned above for reducing caffeine content in tea, we recommend the third one. You can try cold brewing by steeping the tea leaves in room-temperature or ice water, which is extremely effective at reducing caffeine extraction.