Yes, jasmine tea almost always has caffeine, because underneath the flowers it's real tea. The jasmine blossoms themselves contain no caffeine at all; they're only there for fragrance. What carries the caffeine is the base tea, usually green tea, which lands a cup of jasmine tea at roughly 20–45 mg of caffeine. That's about a quarter to half of what's in the same cup of coffee.
I've been asked this question more times than any other, usually by someone holding their third cup at 9pm with a slightly worried look. So let's settle it properly.
The short version
- Jasmine tea is scented tea, not herbal tea. The base is usually green tea, so it's caffeinated.
- A typical cup has roughly 20–45 mg of caffeine, versus 90–100 mg for brewed coffee.
- The flowers add fragrance and zero caffeine. A more floral tea does not mean a more caffeinated one.
- Want less? Cooler water, shorter steeps, fewer leaves, or cold brew it overnight.
- The only truly caffeine-free "jasmine tea" is a pure blossom infusion with no tea leaves in it. Those are rare.
In this post
Why jasmine tea has caffeine (it's the tea, not the flowers)
Jasmine tea starts its life as ordinary tea, most often green tea picked in spring and held until summer, when jasmine blooms. In the traditional process, fresh blossoms are picked in the afternoon while still closed, then layered with the tea overnight as they open and release their scent. The spent flowers are removed and the whole thing is repeated, sometimes three times, sometimes seven or more for the fancy stuff.
Two things follow from that. First, the caffeine content is simply the caffeine of the base tea. Second, a good jasmine tea shouldn't actually be full of petals. The scent lives in the leaf; petals left in the finished tea are mostly decoration. When I visit scenting workshops in Guangxi, where much of the world's jasmine tea is made, the thing that always strikes me is how little jasmine you can see in the finished tea and how much you can smell.
Most jasmine tea uses a green base (like the jasmine tea we source from Guangxi). You'll occasionally find white tea or black tea bases, which shift the caffeine a little, but the principle holds: flowers add nothing, leaves add everything. If you want the fuller picture of how green tea itself behaves, our green tea guide covers the base tea in detail.
How much caffeine is in a cup of jasmine tea?
Here's how jasmine tea compares to the other things in your mug, per 8 oz (240 ml) cup. These are typical ranges, not lab guarantees; leaf amount, water temperature, and steep time all move the number.
| Drink (8 oz cup) | Typical caffeine |
|---|---|
| Jasmine tea, green base (most common) | ~20–45 mg |
| Jasmine tea, white base | often a touch less, ~15–35 mg |
| Black tea | ~40–70 mg |
| Brewed coffee | ~90–100 mg |
| Espresso (1 oz shot) | ~60–65 mg |
| Pure jasmine blossom infusion (no tea leaves) | 0 mg |
If you like checking sources, the Mayo Clinic's caffeine chart puts green tea and coffee in these same neighborhoods.
One detail most people don't know: caffeine concentrates in the youngest parts of the plant, the buds and first leaves. Jasmine pearls and other bud-heavy jasmine teas can sit at the higher end of the range for exactly that reason. It's a quality signal and a caffeine signal at the same time.
You can't rinse away the caffeine (sorry)
There's an old tip that says you can "decaffeinate" tea by steeping it for 30 seconds, pouring that off, and brewing again. I wish it worked. Measurements on this consistently show a quick rinse removes only a small slice of the caffeine, maybe a tenth, while pouring a good chunk of the aroma down the drain. For jasmine tea, where the scent is the entire point, that's a terrible trade.
What actually works, in order of how much I'd recommend it:
- Use cooler water. Caffeine extracts faster in hotter water. Jasmine green tea is happier at around 80°C (175°F) anyway; hotter water makes it bitter and stronger.
- Steep shorter and use fewer leaves. Obvious, but it's the honest math. A light 1-minute brew is a different drink from a heavy 4-minute one.
- Re-steep the same leaves. The first infusion carries the biggest share of the caffeine. Later steeps taste gentler and are gentler.
- Cold brew it. Steeping in fridge-cold water for 6–8 hours pulls out noticeably less caffeine and almost none of the bitterness. It's what I make in summer, and it's the reason our cold-brew jasmine packets exist.
What I actually do at home
Jasmine was the wallpaper tea of my childhood in Hong Kong, the default pot at every dim sum table, poured before anyone asked. My grandmother brewed it the way half of China does, what people now call grandpa style: a pinch of leaves straight in a tall glass, hot water on top, refilled all afternoon. Brewed that light and stretched that far, each glass carries very little caffeine, which is probably why she could drink it until bedtime and sleep like a stone.
That's still my advice if you love jasmine but respect your sleep: brew it light, brew it often, and save the strong first steep for the morning. For the full numbers across every tea type, we've broken it down in how much caffeine is in tea.
FAQ
Is jasmine tea caffeinated?
Almost always, yes. Nearly all jasmine tea is green tea (sometimes white or black tea) scented with jasmine blossoms, so it carries the caffeine of its base tea, roughly 20–45 mg per cup for a green base. Only a pure jasmine flower infusion with no tea leaves is caffeine-free.
Does jasmine tea have more caffeine than coffee?
No. A typical cup of jasmine green tea has about a quarter to half the caffeine of the same size cup of brewed coffee, roughly 20–45 mg versus 90–100 mg. Even a strong-brewed jasmine tea rarely gets anywhere near coffee territory.
Can I drink jasmine tea in the evening?
Plenty of people do, especially brewed light. If caffeine keeps you up, use fewer leaves, cooler water, and shorter steeps, or cold brew it overnight, which extracts noticeably less caffeine. Later steeps of the same leaves also carry less caffeine than the first one.
Is there caffeine-free jasmine tea?
The truly caffeine-free options are pure jasmine blossom infusions or herbal blends that contain no actual tea leaves. They're pleasant but uncommon, and they taste of flowers rather than tea. If the package says jasmine green tea, assume it's caffeinated.
If you want to taste what properly scented jasmine tea is like, with the scent in the leaf rather than in a flavoring lab, this is the one we source from Guangxi. Every batch is lab-tested for pesticides and heavy metals before it ships.