Green and Black Tea Come From the Same Plant—So Why Do They Taste So Different?

For something as simple as leaves steeped in hot water, tea carries a profound legacy that dates back to the southwestern Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan as early as 6,000 years ago. Tea leaves have been traded across empires, inspired revolutions, and warmed billions of hands for centuries.

Tea is a constant in my routine—a small ritual that anchors my days. I take a bracing mug of strong black tea with milk in the mornings and wind down with a calming cup of floral green tea in the afternoon. My fascination with tea’s many profiles is what drew me into learning more about tea, including the differences between green tea and black tea.

Both types of tea share a common origin: Camellia sinensis, the versatile evergreen shrub behind nearly all teas (except for herbal teas, which aren’t considered true teas). Yet green and black teas couldn’t be more different in flavor, color, and usage. How can one plant yield such dramatically distinct brews? 

To learn more about the differences between these two beloved tea varieties, I spoke with Virginia Utermohlen Lovelace, MD, tea educator and author of Tea: a Nerd’s Eye View, Tomoko Honda, Head of Global Operations for Ippodo Tea, a family-run tea company that has been producing and selling fine Japanese green tea since 1717, and Jason McDonald, co-owner of The Great Mississippi Tea Company. 

It turns out there’s a lot to unpack about tea.

Processing Methods

“The core difference between green and black tea happens after the leaves are plucked,” says Lovelace. “Processing plays with the leaf’s chemistry to create various profiles, and you can get a panoply of possibilities depending on what you do.” She explains the main steps below. 

Pluck and Wither

The first steps in producing any tea are the pluck and wither, the stage when plucked leaves dry out. In response to the trauma, the leaves produce defense chemicals that have a grassy and vegetal taste. This step is very short when making green tea—often only as long as it takes to bring the leaves in from the field—about four to eight hours, says Lovelace. For black teas, the withering stage typically lasts 18 hours.

Oxidation

After the withering stage, black tea leaves are rolled by hand or machine to rupture the cell walls, releasing enzymes and compounds that produce fruity, floral notes while reducing the grassy flavors developed during withering. The rolled leaves are kept in a cool, humid environment to promote oxidation for one to four hours, which darkens the leaves and creates large polyphenols—compounds that contribute body, structure, and flavor—responsible for black tea’s rich golden-red color. Green tea leaves skip oxidation and go straight to the kill green stage (below).

Kill Green

This heating step is essential in stopping oxidation by deactivating polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases—two natural enzymes found in tea leaves. In Japan, kill-green is typically done with steam, resulting in green teas with a fresh, grassy taste. In China, tea leaves are usually heated in a wok, which gives the tea a toastier flavor. The amount of time between plucking and this kill green step determines how many dark-colored polyphenols will form, which affects the tea’s final color and flavor.

Storage

Green tea can be enjoyed immediately after the kill green stage. Since it’s minimally oxidized, green tea tends to degrade in a matter of months and become stale and rancid. Depending on storage (the best teas come vacuum packed), green tea can be good for up to a year, but should be consumed within two to three months after opening (keep it away from light, which hastens staling). To tell if your green tea has gone stale, look for faded leaves and a musty or flat smell. Fresh green tea should have a vibrant green color and bright, grassy aroma. Once rested for a few weeks, black tea is ready to drink or store, and often lasts indefinitely if kept dry, which makes it ideal for export.

Flavor: Fresh vs. Bold

Tea’s flavor comes from three main components: polyphenols, amino acids, and essential oils.

• Polyphenols, including catechins, give tea its body, structure, and bitterness. Catechins are compounds that defend the plant. The compounds act as a natural sunscreen and bug repellent, and give green tea its signature flavor. 

  “Green tea has layers of sweetness, astringency, and bitterness,” says Honda. Japanese green teas, such as sencha and gyokuro, are typically steamed to prevent oxidation and preserve polyphenols, resulting in a bright, almost broth-like flavor. 

  Oxidation converts catechins into larger, more complex polyphenols, such as theaflavins and thearubigins, which contribute to black tea’s deeper flavor and its amber to reddish-brown hue. However, these larger polyphenols also contribute astringency—that dry, puckery feeling you get after drinking some teas and red wine.

• Amino acids, particularly L-theanine, add a smooth, savory, almost brothy taste—what Honda describes as umami—to tea. This richness helps balance out the bitterness from catechins and adds depth. It’s a prized characteristic in high-quality green teas, particularly in Japanese varieties such as gyokuro or matcha. Shade-growing the tea plant 20 days before harvest (common in Japanese teas) increases the amount of amino acids in the leaves. That’s why shade-grown teas often taste sweeter and richer than sun-grown ones. In black tea, the oxidation process breaks down amino acids, resulting in tea with less umami and more robust, fruity, or malty flavors.
• Essential oils in tea leaves are volatile organic compounds that are responsible for the tea’s aroma, whether that’s floral, fruity, or grassy. While catechins and amino acids shape taste and mouthfeel, essential oils are what your nose picks up before you even take a sip. These oils are sensitive to heat and oxidation, so how the tea is processed determines how many of these compounds remain in the final product. For instance, a tea that has a floral quality may have been withered for a longer time and heated (kill green) with forced air rather than by a hot wok to retain essential oils.

Environmental conditions in which a tea is grown also play a vital role in the flavor of tea.

“Every area that grows tea will have its own unique nuance,” says McDonald. “Some call this terroir, but I think it has more to do with stress-related phenotypic expression.” By that, he means that terroir is the baseline taste of a tea or region (shaped by factors such as altitude, soil, and sun exposure) that is always present in the tea; however, everyday stressors, such as weather and temperature fluctuations, cause different flavors to emerge in the brewed tea. “As we remove tea from native or traditional areas, we are discovering the wide diversity of the plant and its potential,” he says.

Caffeine Content: Which Tea Packs More Punch?

Generally, black tea contains more caffeine (40 to 70 milligrams per cup) than green tea (20 to 45 milligrams per cup), but not always by much. However, the exact amount depends on the leaf type (younger leaves have more caffeine than mature leaves), brewing time, and how the tea is processed, says Honda. Matcha, a powdered green tea made from shade-grown young leaves, contains significantly more caffeine (up to 70 milligrams per serving) because you’re consuming the whole leaf. (With other teas, you’re only consuming the steeped liquid and discarding the leaves.)

How to Brew Tea

To unfurl and fully release their flavors, whole tea leaves need to steep in hot water for just the right amount of time. However, oversteeping can make green tea bitter or black tea too astringent. To get the best out of your tea, some precision matters, but don’t overthink it.

It’s generally good to brew green tea with steaming hot, not boiling, water to avoid scalding the delicate leaves. If you have an instant-read thermometer handy or an electric kettle with temperature settings, you can aim for about 170°F (77°C). But if you don’t own those tools, not to worry: Just look for small bubbles, not a rolling boil. 

“You can just roughly brew a cup and enjoy it,” says Honda. “And depending on how you feel, the weather, or time of day, you can play around with the recipe to your liking.”

And, oops, if you leave it steeping longer than the recommended time on the package and the tea’s too astringent, Lovelace says adding a pinch of salt will make it all better. “Tastes compete with each other,” she says. “Salt cuts bitterness by interfering with the bitter message that your tongue sends to your brain.”

You can use a tea infuser, but again, specialty tools aren’t necessary to enjoy tea. Across China, for instance, some people put a couple of pinches of tea leaves in a cup, fill it with hot water, then let it steep for a minute before sipping and using their lips to filter out the tea leaves.

Another option for brewing tea is to use a traditional Chinese gaiwan, which consists of a small bowl, saucer, and lid. You pour hot water into the empty gaiwan to warm it up, then empty it and add a few teaspoons of tea leaves. Pour in hot water, let it steep, then use the lid as a strainer as you pour the tea into a cup.

For the Tea Nerds

If you want to get granular (this is Serious Eats, after all) with brewing green tea, make sure the water you use is the best quality available to you (if you wouldn’t drink your tap water straight, don’t use it for tea). Japanese green teas are sweetest when brewed at 160 to 170°F and gyokuro even lower at around 140°F (60°C) for 30 seconds to one minute, but Chinese green teas can tolerate warmer temperatures because they’ve been intensely heated in a wok, as the dry heat and gradual exposure make the leaves more robust or resistant to temperature fluctuations. In comparison, steamed leaves remain more supple and delicate. Start with a teaspoon or two of tea per three fluid ounces of water for a rich, full-bodied tea, and experiment with different ratios to find what suits you best.

To brew black tea, use water at around 200 to 212°F (93 to 100°C) and steep one teaspoon of leaves per six to eight fluid ounces of water for three to five minutes. (If you plan on adding milk, opt for a longer steep for a stronger infusion.)

Cold Brew

To make cold-brewed iced tea, use eight to 12 grams (about a heaping tablespoon) of tea per quart of water and steep in a covered glass or plastic container overnight (keep it refrigerated). Strain off the leaves the next day.

What Are the Best Uses for Tea?

Tradition

Tea inspires ceremony and encourages people all over the world to slow down and catch up with loved ones and new acquaintances.

• In China and Japan, tea ceremonies are a celebration of hospitality, mindfulness, and tradition. Matcha is whisked in Japanese tea rituals, while oolong (a partially oxidized aromatic variety), green, and black teas are often served during Chinese dim sum. 
• Chai, a brew of black tea, milk, spices, and sugar, is central to life in India and Pakistan. It’s warming, invigorating, and social. 
• Thailand’s iconic Thai iced tea is made with black tea, sweetened condensed milk, and spices, resulting in a creamy, dessert-like drink. 
• In Myanmar, fermented tea leaf salad, known as lahpet thoke, is a national delicacy. 
• Afternoon tea, with its scones and finger sandwiches, is almost synonymous with British culture. Strong black tea blends, such as Assam or Ceylon, are the stars here. 
• Malaysians pull tea from cup to cup with milk to create a frothy concoction called teh tarik.
• While most places around the world drink their tea hot, McDonald says Southern Americans tend to drink iced tea and flavored teas.

Tea Pairings

Lovelace says pairing teas with food follows the same tasting principles as wines. Teas and wines have similar polyphenols, flavonols, amino acids, and aromatic volatiles that influence flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel. Think of green teas like the whites, especially Riesling and Gewürztraminer, both wines with bright floral, fruity notes. Oolong is similar to Pinot Noir, with its rich floral and cherry notes. And black tea, like a malty, tannic Assam tea, would be like cabernet. 

“Pairing tea with fruits, cheeses, and sweet treats is a natural inclination,” says McDonald. She explains that black teas work well with dark berries like blackberries, pomegranates, and red grapes, whereas green teas pair especially well with light, crisp fruits, such as lemon, apples, or lychee. 

Honda likes drinking hojicha, a roasted green tea, when eating pizza. Its grassy, toasted notes “go well with oily foods and kind of cleanse your palate.” She also recommends enjoying matcha with chocolate, sencha with citrus desserts, such as lemon meringue or key lime pie, and gyokuro with sushi.

Baking and Cooking

Cooking with tea adds complexity and nuance to food. “Each tea has its own unique flavor profile to add to a dish,” says McDonald.

Black tea can infuse baked goods with a deep, malty flavor, as seen in Thai tea cake, Earl Grey cookies, and tea-soaked Irish bread. Green tea’s delicate nuances, on the other hand,  (especially matcha) work beautifully in shortbread, ice cream, and soba noodles. Tea-smoked duck, a classic from China’s Sichuan province, gets its earthy, woodsy notes from smoked green tea leaves. (Tea smoke is milder than wood—slightly sweet, less oaky, but still deeply savory.) The same method also works with fish and chicken wings. 

When cooking or baking with tea, McDonald says it’s essential to be mindful of its application. “Since there are different compounds in the leaf that infuse and dissolve differently, various methods will result in distinct tastes,” he says. His book, The Great Mississippi Tea Company Cookbook, provides various ways of steeping or infusing, with each helping to bring out different nuances depending on whether you’re applying heat or using fat and what type.

Tea Cocktails

Tea is essentially an herb with nuanced flavors, and is frequently added to mixed drinks. Vegetal gin takes exceptionally well to tea, such as smoky lapsang souchong in sage and gin punch, or gunpowder tea in gin and celery punch.

The Takeaway

Green and black tea are simply different expressions of the same plant—Camellia sinensis—but they couldn’t be more distinct, thanks to the way they’re processed after harvest. Green tea is quickly heated to preserve its grassy, umami-rich character, while black tea is fully oxidized for a bolder, more astringent brew. Factors like oxidation, terroir, and even steeping technique all influence each cup, from caffeine content to aroma. Whether steeped traditionally or casually sipped from a mug, tea is both science and ritual—an ancient beverage with endless possibilities for exploration.

The best tea is the one you enjoy—and the one that suits the moment. If you crave a bold, energizing brew with depth, black tea is your friend. If you’re looking for something lighter and refreshing, green tea is the way to go.