After the release of the Caffeine Calculator, we promised you we would release a better version, and here it is.
The first version worked on a basic level. You chose your tea type, your serving size, and we showed you the amount of caffeine in your tea.
But what happens if you steep your tea multiple times? Of course caffeine will vary by number of steeps, but we didn't have a way to check that.
Well, that was before.
You can now get caffeine levels for each steep!!!
We also added a chart for quick conversion between ounces and milliliters.
So let’s dive into the new Caffeine Calculator.
Caffeine Calculator Overview
Remember the caffeine calculator was broken down into 3 main sections, Tea Type, Serving Size, and caffeine amount. Well, now we've added a fourth section: steep number.
Version one looked like this:
Version two looks like this:
As you can see from the screenshot above, you'll now get to see the amount of caffeine in your tea based on serving size AND steep number.
Pro Tip: If you want to enjoy your tea with less caffeine, toss the first steep, although this would make us very sad :(
HOW IS THE CAFFEINE MEASURED?
Now, before you head over to Caffeine Calculator and start looking up teas, there is one thing you need to keep in mind… there are many factors that affect the amount of caffeine in tea.
Brewing time and water temperature are two of the factors. If you steep the same green tea for slightly different times, or with slightly different water temperature, you will get a different amount of caffeine in each cup. Cultivar and growing region may also affect the caffeine in your tea. Darjeeling black tea may give you a different amount of caffeine from Assam black tea, even if steeped the same way. The difference can be subtle, but it is there.
So...you may be wondering how we got the caffeine values contained in THIS calculator.
There is an organization in Taiwan called the Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES). They are affiliated with the governmental Council of Agriculture and conduct research on all things tea. They ran a caffeine test on seven different types of tea using ratios of 1:50 grams of tea leaves to milliliters of boiling water, steeped for six minutes. Second and third steeps were also six minutes.
Although your actual caffeine mileage may vary, this calculator is based on data from TRES, so it's about as accurate as you can get without having a lab (or some of these) at home.
Now for the good stuff...
THE STEEP NUMBER SLIDER
Let's have a look at how this new feature works.
Here's the amount of caffeine in a 12 ounce (355 ml) cup of green tea steeped once for six minutes. As you can see, there is 141 mg of caffeine.
Now, let's have a look at the same cup of green tea steeped for the second time. The caffeine has gone down to 99 mg.
So, what’s next?
Now that we've added the steep selector, the next step will be to add more teas. Lots more teas! We've only just scratched the surface.
In addition to adding a larger selection of tea, you've given us great feedback on other features you would like to see –– and the first one we'll be working on is allowing you to adjust the amount of tea you are brewing. Once that is done you'll be able to use the calculator to adjust for tea type, serving size, amount of tea, AND steep number!
Conclusion
We hope you enjoy the new version of the Caffeine Calculator. We know there is still lots that we can add to make this even better, and we're already working on that, but hopefully, you enjoy this round of updates!
So overall, we know it’s not perfect, but what do you think so far? Let us know in the comments what you think and what you'd like to see added, the more feedback the better!
And if you haven’t tried it, head over to the Caffeine Calculator and give it a spin!
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