I learned from Upton Tea Imports a few years ago that you can decaffeinate your tea by steeping it for 30 seconds or so and draining off the liquid, then pouring fresh water onto the grounds and steeping the tea for the requisite time (usually 4 to 6 minutes). I have found that my favorite teas all have excellent flavor with this method, and I think I have gotten more sleep because of having the option to drink any caffeinated tea in the cupboard at night without adverse effects.
Recently someone said caffeine is so volatile that you should be able to pour the first soaking of water off immediately to rinse all of the caffeine from the drink before restarting the process with fresh, boiling water. I have wondered about the effect of the 30- to 45-second soak, too.
I believe you can’t do the same thing to decaffeinate coffee at home because that first rinse would carry away too many of the flavor-developing oils and compounds, but with tea the flavor depends more upon the tannins that develop as the brew steeps for several minutes.
What does your research turn up on this?
Hmm…I would also be interested in such a method since I like to avoid excess caffeine and decaf teabags are priced somewhat higher than the regular. Maybe I will just try rinsing them under hot tap water for a bit before boiling the tea.
Here’s one actual experiment:
http://www.elmwoodinn.com/about/caffeine.html
You could probably do some simple experiments yourself without too much equipment.
See also this site for numbers on the caffeine amounts in re-used tea :
http://nobleharbor.com/tea/caffiene.html
One thing I’d like to see is a test comparing water temperature. It’s my hunch that that has the biggest effect on caffeine extraction, and seeing what would happen if cooling does not happen in a few minutes might be interesting.
You’re right about the temperature dependance. Wikipedia displays solubility (not volatility which is something else entirely) increasing almost 100-fold (from ~2 to 60+ g/100mL) between 20C and 100C.
Caffeine is particularly soluble in water compared with other alkaloids, and I would WAG that it’s much more so than the other tannins, oils and other organics giving you a yummy cuppa. I’d be surprised if there was a significant difference in terms of caffeine extraction between, say, a ten-second-swirl-and-pour, and a more proper almost-minute soak.
I’d be surprised if there was a significant difference in terms of caffeine extraction between, say, a ten-second-swirl-and-pour, and a more proper almost-minute soak.
That is my impression, too, Interconnected Series. I keep thinking I could just pour some boiling water over the tea leaves for several seconds and then steep it.
Is caffeine so volatile that it evaporates? I wonder if leaving the leaves soaking in the brew for five minutes is quite different from the rinsing method, and deserves study of its own. What would be the easiest way to assay caffeine levels?
As for water temperatures for brewing coffee, I have started using an Aeropress, which I love (none of that acrid flavor and all of the rich coffee goodness), and its inventor did a bunch of testing and found that 185F was the perfect temperature for coffee flavor. I agree – I think the coffee acquires more of that tannic, sour flavor when I use water at a rolling boil.
panama jack, just read the article you posted. I still wonder about steeping vs. rinsing, but that piece also has the best breakout of caffeine levels in different types of tea I’ve ever seen. Thanks for posting it.