At a glance
- Matcha comes from the same plant as green and black tea, but it's grown in the shade, made from younger leaves and drunk as a whole-leaf powder.
- Shading increases caffeine, L-theanine and chlorophyll in the leaf, and older leaves hold less caffeine.
- Per gram, matcha measures about 18.9–44.4 mg of caffeine, versus 11.3–24.7 mg for green tea.
- Guayusa shares two of matcha's tricks: it grows in the shade of the forest, and our Guayusa Powder is the whole leaf, ground.
Start here: everything about the leaf, from taste to caffeine to brewing, is in our complete guide to guayusa tea.
If you've ever switched from green tea to matcha and felt the difference, you're not imagining it. Matcha and green tea come from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, yet a bowl of matcha usually delivers more caffeine than a cup of green tea. The reason isn't a different species. It's how the leaf is grown, which leaves are used and how you drink them.
Those same three ideas help explain why guayusa, a caffeinated holly from the Ecuadorian Amazon, can be so rich in caffeine too.
Reason 1: matcha is grown in the shade
For much of their growth, the tea bushes used for matcha are covered with mats that block direct sunlight. According to a 2021 scientific review of matcha, shading boosts the build-up of several compounds in the leaf, including caffeine, L-theanine and chlorophyll. The chlorophyll is why good matcha is such a vivid green; the extra L-theanine is part of why it tastes savory and smooth.
Green and black teas are usually grown in full sun, so they don't get this boost.
Reason 2: younger leaves hold more caffeine
The same review notes that caffeine content is linked to the harvest time and the age of the leaves: the older the leaf, the lower its caffeine. Matcha is typically made from the tender, young leaves of the plant.
This pattern isn't unique to tea. In guarana, another caffeine plant from the Amazon, researchers found that purine alkaloids such as caffeine were highest in young, immature tissues and decreased as the plant matured.
Reason 3: you drink the whole leaf
This is the biggest difference in your cup. With green or black tea, you steep the leaves and throw them away, so only part of the caffeine ends up in the water. Matcha is the leaf itself, stone-ground into a fine powder and whisked into water. You drink all of it.
Here's how the numbers compare per gram of dry leaf, from the 2021 matcha review:
| Leaf | Caffeine per gram | How you drink it |
|---|---|---|
| Green tea | ~11.3–24.7 mg/g | Infusion (leaves removed) |
| Matcha | ~18.9–44.4 mg/g | Whole leaf, powdered |
| Guayusa, cultivated | ~15–32 mg/g (about 1.5–3.2%) | Infusion, or whole leaf as powder |
| Guayusa, wild trees | up to ~76 mg/g (about 7.6%) | Traditionally boiled as a decoction |
A typical bowl of matcha uses about 2 g of powder, which works out to roughly 38–89 mg of caffeine by our own calculation. For brewed tea, the FDA lists about 37 mg for 12 oz of green tea and about 71 mg for 12 oz of black tea.
What guayusa has in common with matcha
Guayusa (Ilex guayusa) isn't tea; it's a holly, a cousin of yerba mate. But it shares more with matcha than you might expect.
It grows in the shade. Our guayusa grows in chakras, traditional Kichwa forest gardens in Napo, Ecuador, where it lives under the canopy alongside fruit trees, food crops and native forest. Matcha growers create shade with mats; in the chakra, the forest does it. Whether shade raises caffeine in guayusa the way it does in tea hasn't been studied yet, so we can't say it does, but it's an intriguing parallel.
The leaf can be exceptionally rich in caffeine. A 2025 scientific review of guayusa reports that leaves from wild trees can reach up to about 7.6% caffeine, among the highest levels ever reported for a leaf. Cultivated, dried leaves usually measure lower, about 1.5–3.2%, which already puts them in matcha's range.
Young leaves are different. A study of guayusa found that younger leaves hold more phenolic compounds than older ones. It didn't measure caffeine. In tea and guarana, younger tissue holds more caffeine, but in yerba mate, guayusa's closest cousin, studies disagree: some point to young leaves, while others found caffeine rising as the leaf ages or no difference at all. Leaf age probably matters for guayusa too; which way is something we'd love to see tested.
You can drink the whole leaf. Our Guayusa Powder is guayusa's answer to matcha: the whole leaf, finely ground, blended into water, milk or a smoothie. That's why it's one of our strongest formats, at about 120 mg of caffeine per teaspoon. For the full side-by-side, read Guayusa vs Matcha.
How to get more caffeine from your leaf
The same principles work at home, whatever you drink:
- Use more leaf. Caffeine follows the grams: our 5 g Guayusa Tea Bags (50 count) have about 82 mg, twice the 2.5 g bags.
- Steep longer. Five minutes gives a lighter cup; ten gives a fuller one.
- Drink the whole leaf. Powder (guayusa or matcha) gives you everything in the leaf.
- Pick a denser cut. A finer cut packs more leaf into each teaspoon: our Traditional Guayusa Loose Leaf has about 66 mg per 4 g serving, while 2 teaspoons of Guayusa Extra Fine (about 8 g) hold about 115 mg.
More caffeine isn't always better. Count all your sources, keep stronger cups to the morning, and if you're pregnant, take medication or are sensitive to caffeine, talk to your doctor. See Is Guayusa Safe? for more.
Want to compare formats? Browse our guayusa tea bags and loose leaf guayusa, or see How Much Caffeine Is in Guayusa?
Keep reading: Guayusa vs Green Tea · Is There a Tea With More Caffeine Than Coffee? · Guayusa vs Guarana
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does matcha have more caffeine than green tea?
Three reasons: matcha bushes are shaded before harvest, which increases caffeine in the leaf; matcha uses younger leaves, which hold more caffeine than older ones; and you drink the whole powdered leaf instead of an infusion. Per gram, matcha measures about 18.9–44.4 mg of caffeine, versus 11.3–24.7 mg for green tea.
Does shade-grown tea have more caffeine?
In tea, yes. A 2021 scientific review of matcha reports that shading increases caffeine, L-theanine and chlorophyll in the leaf. That's one reason matcha and other shade-grown teas taste smoother and feel stronger than sun-grown green tea.
Is guayusa powder like matcha?
In one key way, yes: both are the whole leaf, ground fine, so you consume all of it. Matcha is shade-grown green tea; guayusa is a caffeinated holly from the Amazon. Our Guayusa Powder has about 120 mg of caffeine per teaspoon.
Does guayusa grow in the shade?
Yes. Our guayusa grows in chakras, traditional forest gardens in Napo, Ecuador, where it lives under the forest canopy instead of in open fields. Whether that shade raises its caffeine, as it does in tea, hasn't been studied yet.
Which has more caffeine, matcha or guayusa?
Per gram, cultivated guayusa leaf (about 1.5–3.2%) sits in matcha's range (about 1.9–4.4%), while leaves from wild guayusa trees have been measured at up to about 7.6%. Per cup, it depends on how much you use: a 2 g bowl of matcha has roughly 38–89 mg, and a teaspoon of Guayusa Powder about 120 mg.
Sources
- Kochman J., et al. (2021). "Health benefits and chemical composition of matcha green tea: a review." Molecules 26(1):85 — https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26010085
- Noriega P., et al. (2025). "Guayusa (Ilex guayusa Loes.) Ancestral Plant of Ecuador: History, Traditional Uses, Chemistry, Biological Activity, and Potential Industrial Uses." Molecules 30(13):2837 — https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules30132837
- Schimpl F.C., et al. (2014). "Molecular and biochemical characterization of caffeine synthase and purine alkaloid concentration in guarana fruit." Phytochemistry 105:25-36 — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phytochem.2014.04.018
- Villacís-Chiriboga J., et al. (2018). "Changes in phytochemical composition, bioactivity and in vitro digestibility of guayusa leaves (Ilex guayusa Loes.) in different ripening stages." Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 98(5):1927-1934 — https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.8675
- Meneses M.Á., et al. (2024). "Green Processing of Ilex guayusa." Molecules 29(22):5309 (summary of cultivated leaf caffeine values) — https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29225309
- FAO, GIAHS: "Amazonian Chakra" (Napo, Ecuador) — https://www.fao.org/giahs/giahs-around-the-world/ecuador-amazonian-chakra/en
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine Is Too Much?" — https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much