Tea

Tea: common questions

The questions people actually arrive with, answered with figures read from this catalogue rather than rounded off.

Are green tea, black tea and oolong different plants?

No — they are all Camellia sinensis. What separates them is how far the picked leaf is allowed to oxidise before that process is halted, plus withering, rolling, firing and in some cases ageing. Green tea is halted early, black tea is taken to full oxidation, oolong sits between the two, and pu-erh adds fermentation and storage. This catalogue sorts its 163 teas across 8 types on exactly that axis.

How much caffeine is in tea compared with coffee?

Less per cup in most cases, but the overlap is wider than people expect. Across the teas here the range is 5 mg to 120 mg per stated serving. Matcha sits at the top because the whole leaf is consumed as powder rather than infused and discarded. Steeping time, water temperature and leaf quantity move the figure substantially, so a stated number is a typical value rather than a fixed one.

What water temperature should I use for green tea?

Below boiling. Delicate Japanese green teas are usually brewed well under 80°C, and gyokuro lower still; boiling water on a shade-grown leaf extracts bitterness and drives off the aromatics you paid for. Black teas and most pu-erh take water at or near boiling. Every tea page states a temperature in both °C and °F alongside a ratio in grams per litre and a steep time — as a starting point, not a rule, because the three variables interact.

Does adding milk destroy the antioxidants in tea?

The honest answer is that the evidence is mixed and the effect, if any, is smaller than the claim usually suggests. Some laboratory work reports milk proteins binding tea polyphenols; human studies have not consistently shown a meaningful reduction in measured antioxidant activity. If you prefer tea with milk, that is not a decision worth reversing on the strength of the current evidence.