Friday, January 23, 2009

How to decaffeinate tea

So since ET I have been reducing my caffeine intake, like a good responsible pregnant woman ;-). I don't drink coffee, so that was easy. I did drink cola, so I switched to the caffeine-free version, but since I'm pregnant I don't really crave it that much anymore and if I drink one mini-can (15 cl) a week, it's already a lot. But tea... I drink that a lot, I love it. So for my afternoon and evening teas I switched to rooibos and herbal teas. However, at breakfast I really need the taste of black tea (preferably earl grey).

Of course even if that would be my only caffeine intake (usually 2 cups) that would not be a big deal, but I read in a booklet from a local tea shop that you can easily decaffeinate tea by soaking the tea bag in a separate cup for the first 30 seconds, throw that tea out, and then use the bag to make the tea you're going to drink. Great! So I've been using this method ever since, but I'm still wondering if this is really true, or if I'm just kidding myself. I have no way to test. My hubby thinks it's strange, since this would mean the caffeine in tea is released in the opposite way as with coffee, where the rule is that the longer the coffee has been exposed to water, the more caffeine it contains (so yes, this means there's more caffeine in drip coffee than in an espresso! Believe it, my hubby is a regular on c.offeeg.eek.com).

Anyway, this is all not very important, but I thought it would be a fun fact to share during ICLW.

5 comments:

Valerie said...

I can't wait for someone to tell us if this is true of not.

ICLW

m said...

??? I am really glad you shared this little tidbit. (how the heck would one know if it works or not?)

Thank goodness for roobius - that's my go-to whenever its time to compile a "can't have" list. Which hopefully will be soon.

iclw

daega99 said...

I haven't read anything on how to decaffinate tea. I was even told that decaffinated tea still had very low levels of caffine in it and therefore certain herbal teas were preferable. I'll have to take a look online to see if there are any methods.

Thanks for visiting! I'm glad you enjoyed those 6 posts.

*ICLW 66*

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

This is, sadly, not true. I stumbled upon your blog today looking for an answer to this question. The next site I went to was this one:

http://felicitea.com/news/2008/05/decaffination-myths-are-all-washed-up.html

which dispels this myth. I realize this is probably too late for your purposes :)