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How much caffeine is in matcha? The numbers

Bolsa de Matcha Zen con un cuenco, una taza y un chasen sobre una mesa de madera con luz cálida

Matcha Zen organic ceremonial matcha set: 100 g pouch with stainless steel measuring spoon

How much caffeine is in matcha? The numbers

A bowl of matcha made with 2 g of powder carries around 48 mg of caffeine, roughly half a 240 ml cup of coffee. Alongside the caffeine come L-theanine, catechins, chlorophyll and the fibre of the leaf, because you drink the powder whole and filter nothing out. Below is what the trials measured, each with its PMID.


What matcha actually is

Matcha is powdered green tea from the leaf of Camellia sinensis. Unlike other teas it grows in shade for the weeks before harvest, which raises chlorophyll and amino acids. That is where the deep green of the powder and the umami sweetness of a ceremonial grade come from, as opposed to a bag of ordinary green tea.

The real caffeine figures

According to the USDA database, 100 g of matcha contains 2.4 g of caffeine, about 24 mg per gram of powder. At the usual 2 g per bowl that is roughly 48 mg. A 240 ml cup of coffee sits at around 96 mg. Matcha also contains L-theanine, an amino acid characteristic of the tea leaf that coffee does not have.

Put in office terms: you would need two bowls of matcha to match the caffeine of one cup from the machine by the lifts. The difference is that the second bowl tastes of something.

What the studies measured, in whom and for how long

  1. Attention after a stress test: a randomised placebo-controlled trial published in Nutrition Research in 2021 (Baba et al., PMID 33744591) gave 2 g of matcha daily for two weeks to 42 adults aged 25 to 34 and recorded reaction times in the Stroop test and accuracy in an emotion perception task, after inducing mild acute stress with the Uchida-Kraepelin test.

  2. Older adults, 12 months: a randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled trial published in PLoS One in 2024 (Uchida et al., PMID 39213264) followed 99 older adults with subjective or mild cognitive decline for twelve months, 49 on 2 g of matcha daily and 50 on placebo. The primary outcome, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, did not change significantly. The facial emotion perception score did.

  3. Sleep and mood: a randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled trial published in Nutrients in 2024 (Baba et al., PMID 39275223) gave Japanese adults aged 27 to 64 two point seven grams of matcha daily for four weeks, delivering 50.3 mg of theanine, 301.4 mg of catechins and 71.5 mg of caffeine per dose, and recorded sleep by electroencephalography. It found no differences in total sleep time, latency, wake after sleep onset or efficiency.

  4. Theanine and caffeine together: a systematic review with meta-analysis of 50 randomised trials in healthy people, published in Nutrition Reviews in 2025 (Payne et al., PMID 40314930), measured attention and mood tests during the first and second hour after intake. The authors stress that the confidence intervals leave both the direction and the size of the effect in doubt.

Trials with resistance training

A randomised placebo-controlled trial published in Nutrition Journal in 2023 (Shigeta et al., PMID 37403052) gave healthy untrained men a drink containing 1.5 g of matcha twice a day, over 8 weeks in a first trial and 12 in a second, combined with resistance training. It measured maximal leg strength, muscle mass, subjective fatigue, salivary cortisol and gut microbiota composition.

The Colorado paper, and what it really measured

A great many websites claim that the University of Colorado compared matcha drinkers with coffee drinkers. It did not. The Colorado work that exists is analytical chemistry: Weiss and Anderton published it in the Journal of Chromatography A in 2003 (PMID 14518774) and developed a micellar electrokinetic chromatography method to quantify five catechins and the caffeine content of matcha. Their result, in milligrams per gram of dry leaf, was an EGCG concentration 137 times higher than the green tea China Green Tips. No participants, no coffee, no measurement of energy.

Conclusion

The numbers are these: around 48 mg of caffeine per 2 g bowl, against about 96 mg in a 240 ml cup of coffee. One to three bowls a day come to 48 to 144 mg, well below the 400 mg that health authorities use as a daily reference for healthy adults. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or living with a medical condition, speak to your doctor before changing your caffeine intake.

Our Matcha Zen Ceremonial is first harvest, shade grown in Jingshan (China) and processed at Zhejiang Camel Transworld in Yuhang (Hangzhou). Slow stone milling, 100 g doypack, around 50 bowls per pouch at £19.00, so roughly 38p a bowl. Organic certification CCPAE, code ES-ECO-019-CT, plus USDA Organic.

References

  1. Baba Y, Kaneko T, Takihara T., Matcha consumption maintains attentional function following a mild acute psychological stress without affecting a feeling of fatigue: A randomized placebo-controlled study in young adults. Nutrition Research, 2021. PMID 33744591. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33744591/
  2. Uchida K, Meno K, Korenaga T, et al., Effect of matcha green tea on cognitive functions and sleep quality in older adults with cognitive decline: A randomized controlled study over 12 months. PLoS One, 2024. PMID 39213264. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39213264/
  3. Baba Y, Takihara T, Okamura N., Matcha Does Not Affect Electroencephalography during Sleep but May Enhance Mental Well-Being: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. Nutrients, 2024. PMID 39275223. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39275223/
  4. Payne ER, Aceves-Martins M, Dubost J, Greyling A, de Roos B., Effects of Tea (Camellia sinensis) or its Bioactive Compounds l-Theanine or l-Theanine plus Caffeine on Cognition, Sleep, and Mood in Healthy Participants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrition Reviews, 2025. PMID 40314930. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40314930/
  5. Shigeta M, Aoyama Y, Kokubo Y, et al., Matcha green tea beverage moderates fatigue and supports resistance training-induced adaptation. Nutrition Journal, 2023. PMID 37403052. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37403052/
  6. Weiss DJ, Anderton CR., Determination of catechins in matcha green tea by micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A, 2003. PMID 14518774. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14518774/
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