Why does cold brew tea have half the caffeine than hot tea, but cold brew coffee has more caffeine than hot coffee?

Question

Why does cold brew tea have half the caffeine than hot tea, but cold brew coffee has more caffeine than hot coffee?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

My best guess would be that the heat is required to extract any caffeine from the leaves. So while heating the caffeine destroys it in either case, with tea, heat is required to get any caffeine out of the tea leaves.

ELi5: heat gets rid of caffeine, but you need some heat to get the caffeine out of the plant quickly. Some plants need more heat to break the caffeine free from the plant.