Passion fruit tea is one of the most common and beloved kinds of tea out there. Most of the time you'll find it iced, served on a hot summer day.
But does passion fruit tea have caffeine ? After all, if we're drinking it so often we'll want to know what's in it, right ?
Well, the truth is that it very much depends on exactly what kind of tea you get. Let me explain.
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So does passion fruit tea have caffeine ?
Yes and no. It depends on whether the tea is blended with one of the Camellia sinensis teas - black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong, and Pu'erh.
That being said, you have a 50/50 chance of getting caffeinated and caffeine-free passion fruit tea. The best approach is to check the label or the menu, and if you're still not sure, ask the waiter or barista.
Here's how you can tell if your passion fruit tea has any caffeine to begin with.
If it's pure herbal tea, it has no caffeine
Let's take a look at herbal teas first.
Passion fruit tea is essentially a herbal tea, at least that's the original version. So you're going to get a caffeine-free cup of tea if you get herbal tea.
This is because passion fruit, on its own, has no caffeine at all. And neither do the other fruits or herbs it might be blended with. Common blends include hibiscus flowers, apple, orange peel, other fruits like papaya or mango, and so on.
None of these have any caffeine at all.
If you're looking for a good recommendation on a herbal passion fruit tea, Tazo has a really good one. It's a strong tea, so it's going to behave well even if you'd like to brew an iced tea out of it.
You can find Tazo's Passion Herbal infusion on Amazon, right here.
This is a 6-pack deal, meaning you'll get 6 packs of 20 teabags each. Herbal tea, in the form of teabags - easy to use, easy to discard once you're done brewing.
If using for iced tea I recommend brewing the tea much stronger, possibly leaving the teabags in for longer than usual.
Starbucks' Iced Passion Tango has no passion fruit, nor caffeine
If you're here for the Starbucks Iced Passion tea, then you need to know this one has no caffeine at all. It also has no passion fruit at all.
This is a common mix-up, due to how they decided to name the tea itself.
It has nothing to do with the fruit, but rather an artistic flourish on their part. The tea looks amazing, though.
According to Starbucks' page, caffeine is 0, and the main ingredients are hibiscus, lemongrass and apple. It has no passion fruit mentioned anywhere.
So if you were wondering if you can drink this in the evening, or give it to a person who shouldn't be having caffeine, then it's alright.
If it's blended with black tea, it has caffeine
Back to actual passion fruit tea, let's talk a little about the ones blended with 'true teas'.
By that I mean that if you look on the packaging/menu, and see black tea mentioned alongside passion fruit, then it will have caffeine.
Now, it's not mandatory for it to have black tea. It can be any tea made from the Camellia sinensis plant.
Meaning it can be blended with green tea, or with white tea, oolong, or even Pu'erh tea.
Black tea is the most common, since it goes well with pretty much anything. And it also seems to be the traditional base for iced teas everywhere around the world.
So how much caffeine is there if there's black tea in your passion fruit tea ? Well, the thing is no one really knows for sure.
If you'll do a brief web search, you'll find caffeine level from 14 mg to 60 mg for black tea. Who is right ?
No one. A study done on actual tea and its level of caffeine revealed that there really is no amount of caffeine that is absolutely specific to one tea type.
Meaning that passion fruit black tea may have 20 mg of caffeine in this batch of tea, or it might have 31 mg in the next batch, and it might just have only 10 mg in another batch.
This inconsistency is due to several factors:
- how long the tea was allowed to steep, and thus release caffeine
- how much caffeine was in the plant, to begin with
- weather conditions and soil quality when the tea plant was growing
So really, all you can count on is black tea having less coffee than a shot of espresso. Some reckon it has about half the caffeine, or slightly less.
If you're wondering about this because you'd like some caffeine in your tea, but don't want to have actual coffee then know that you might have to sip on several passion fruit black teas to get an actual caffeine kick.
Even if you do get the kick, it will feel very, very different from coffee. This is because of L-theanine, a compound naturally found in tea that makes caffeine work gently, as opposed to bursting into the bloodstream.
If you're looking for a recommendation for passion fruit black tea, then you should check out the Republic of Tea's blend of black tea with passion fruit.
It's got black tea, sunflower petals, passion fruit bits, and pineapple flavoring. And, for convenience's sake it also comes in the form of tea bags (unbleached), 50 of them in one beautiful pack.
You can find their tea on Amazon, right here.
If you're brewing whit hot or cold it'll do great in both cases. Personally I would try to keep it a hot tea, since there's something about fruity black tea that I just enjoy as a hot cup of tea.
But you do as you please.
Whichever way you do it, you're getting at least some form of caffeine into your system, and if that's what you're after, that's all that matters.
Conclusion
Passion fruit tea is a nice, summery kind of tea that's going to get most people excited just by the smell of it. And if you're wondering if you can drink it in the evening, just make sure you get a herbal tea, and you'll be fine.
But if you're looking to start your day with the most amazing, fruity caffeinated tea out there, then you should definitely look for one that's got black or green tea in it. Enjoy !
If you want to know more about coffee or tea, feel free to check the related articles below. Who knows what else you might find ?
