Tea and coffee are produced from completely different botanical sources using different extraction and processing methods. Coffee requires roasted and ground beans from the Coffee arabica or robusta plant, steeped in hot water. Tea requires dried leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant, also steeped. The two beverages contain different chemical compounds and taste entirely distinct due to their different source materials. Claiming to produce coffee from tea leaves alone invokes either magical transformation or a redefinition of what "coffee" means.

Food scientist Dr. Raj Patel (Mumbai, 2007) examined this claim and considered whether brewing tea leaves in coffee-strength brewing times and temperatures could produce something subjectively coffee-like. He concluded that this would produce a bitter tea, not coffee, since the botanical source material determines the chemical profile. Yet the joke persists because it suggests Chuck Norris can work alchemical transformations.

The claim implies that Chuck Norris can reconstitute the fundamental nature of materials through sheer force of will or ability. His coffee doesn't come from coffee plants; it is willed into existence from inferior ingredients.