Does Earl Grey Have Caffeine?

The short answer is yes: standard Earl Grey contains caffeine, because Earl Grey is not a special plant, it is black tea (real Camellia sinensis) scented with oil of bergamot. The bergamot adds aroma, not caffeine and not decaffeination; the caffeine comes from the black tea base. The useful detail is how much, and the genuine exceptions, which this page sets out below.

Why Earl Grey has caffeine

Earl Grey is a flavouring applied to a base, not a tea type of its own. The classic base is black tea, which is fully oxidised true tea and therefore caffeinated like any black tea. The bergamot citrus oil that defines Earl Grey contributes flavour and aroma only; it does not raise, lower or remove caffeine. So a normal cup of Earl Grey behaves, caffeine-wise, like a normal cup of black tea, which is the baseline before the variations.

How much, in practice

The answer is "about the same as ordinary black tea", which is a moderate amount, typically well below a strong coffee but enough to be a genuine pick-me-up and enough to disturb sleep if you are caffeine-sensitive and drink it late. As with all tea, the precise figure is not fixed: it depends on the leaf grade and, mostly, on how you brew, more leaf, hotter water and a longer steep give more caffeine, a quick light brew less. Anyone quoting one exact milligram figure for "Earl Grey" is overstating a number that brewing alone moves considerably.

The genuine exceptions

This is where frankness earns its place, because "Earl Grey" is now a flavour profile applied to several different bases. Green Earl Grey uses a green tea base: still caffeinated (green tea has caffeine too), generally a little less robustly than the black version but not low and certainly not zero. Rooibos Earl Grey or "caffeine free Earl Grey" uses a rooibos base: this one genuinely is caffeine free, because rooibos is a caffeine-free South African herb, not tea, a real option for people who love the bergamot flavour but not the caffeine. The rule is to read what the base actually is: black or green base means caffeinated; rooibos base means caffeine free.

The decaf option

Decaf Earl Grey is a genuine and clear product: it is decaffeinated black tea scented with bergamot, so it has had most (not quite all) of its caffeine removed and a small residual amount remains, which is true of all decaf. It tastes slightly softer than full-caffeine Earl Grey, a fair trade, not a failure, and is a sensible choice for an evening Earl Grey without the caffeine, just not an absolute zero. If you need true zero, the rooibos version is the clear choice over decaf. Brew classic Earl Grey just off the boil for three to four minutes (cooler and shorter if you want a touch less caffeine).

Earl Grey by base, and the caffeine

Reference noted

• EFSA Scientific Opinion on the Safety of Caffeine (2015)
• NHS guidance on caffeine

More from the tea wiki

• Caffeine in tea
• Ultimate caffeine guide
• How much caffeine in Earl Grey
• Earl Grey explained
• What counts as tea
• Black tea

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