Tea Myth Tuesday - decaffeinate tea in 30 seconds

Good Morning: I can see that I need to do a better proofing job before posting. Robert Fortune was in China in the 1840's. Sorry for the errors.

Today's Myth: You can decaffeinate tea by steeping 30 seconds, tossing the liquor and re-steeping. This is more complex, but it is essentially BUSTED!

You can, in fact, remove some caffeine by limited steeping, BUT, you also remove other things which provide flavor and some of the antioxidant benefits you may want. Specifically: epigallo catechin gallate or epcg. Here is what you get:

Steeping 30 seconds at 160: 14% caffeine and 13% epcg removed
Steeping 30 seconds at 185: 29% caffeine and 23% epcg removed
Steeping 30 seconds at 212: 27% caffeine and 24% epcg removed

Steeping 60 seconds at 160: 38% caffeine and 33% epcg removed
Steeping 60 seconds at 185: 53% caffeine and 42% epcg removed
Steeping 60 seconds at 212: 51% caffeine and 44% epcg removed

If one of the reasons you drink tea is for the antioxidants, it seems silly to take it out along with the flavor.

Thanks to Nigel Melican at Teacraft for the information.

See you Friday,
Julee