Camellia ptilophylla, known as cocoa tea, is a natural decaffeinated tea plant which has been proved with potential bioactivities. This study was carried out to evaluate the safety of green cocoa tea water extract (CWE) by determining its potential toxicity after subacute administration in SD rats. In the subacute toxicity study, oral administration of CWE up to 800 mg kg−1 body weight day−1 for twenty-eight consecutive days did not cause either mortality or toxicity in SD rats, regardless of gender. There were no adverse effects in body weight, food consumption, relative organ weight, haematological parameters, clinical chemistry, gross pathology and histopathology between treatment and control groups. Several parameters (e.g. neutrophils%, Ca2+, total Ca) in CWE-treated rats with high dosage were significantly different from the control groups, but still in a safety level. A dose of 800 mg kg−1 day−1 was identified as the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) in this study.