Expert: Henry Boyter - 7/17/2004

Question
Hi!

I heard that making decaffeined tea is easy; just soak tea leaves in hot water for 20-30 seconds, pour the water away and soak leaves again.

When hot water is introduced to tea for the first time, most of the caffeine is (at least supposed to) dissolve quickly from tea into water, yet it takes longer time for molecules that make the actual taste to dissolve.

I am a bit too sensitive to caffeine, but crave for this divine drink, so I would appreciate if you could confirm or falsify this claim. I have been trying to find actual research for this claim for several hours, but even my Google skills aren't giving any answer.

Answer
No first hand knowledge, but sound like poor science but could be true.  20-30 seconds does not sound long enough.  I would stick with already decaffinated tea based on the note on this website http://www.dilmahtea.com/Faq/faq.html that 80% is extacted during brewing (which would be longer than 20-30 seconds).  I should also note that based on things I have read on British soldiers, that the flavor of tea continues to be extraxcted using leaves again, but it falls off dramatically from the first brew.  Also 80% removal will still give you more than commercially decafiinated tea (3-8 versus <2).  Another good site.

http://www.stashtea.com/caffeine.htm