How do they decaffeinate tea?

Question

How is caffein removed or minimised from tea?

Answer 1

Hopefully this explains how caffieine is removed from tea!!


Decaffeination is the act of removing caffeine from coffee beans, mate, cocoa, tea leaves and other caffeine containing materials. (While caffeine-free soft drinks are occasionally referred to as "decaffeinated," some are actually prepared by simply omitting caffeine from production.)

Tea may also be decaffeinated, usually by using processes analogous to the Direct Method or the CO2 process as described above. Fermentation (i.e. the process of oxidizing tea leaves to create "black," "red," or "oolong" tea leaves from green leaves) does not affect the amount of caffeine present in the tea, though tea plant species (i.e. Camellia sinensis sinensis vs. Camellia sinensis assamica) may differ in natural caffeine content. Younger leaves and buds contain more caffeine per weight than older leaves and stems. A generally accepted statistic is that a cup of tea contains 40-50 mg of caffeine, roughly half the content of a cup of coffee. [3] A common myth is that discarding a short (30-60 second) steep will reduce caffeine content in a subsequent brew by 80-90%. Research suggests that this number is far lower. On average, with two consecutive five minute steeps, the second steep has one third the caffeine of the first; about 23% of the total caffeine in the leaves.[4]

Co2/O2 process:
This process is technically known as supercritical fluid extraction. With the CO2 process, pre-steamed leaves are soaked in a liquid bath of carbon dioxide at 73 to 300 atmospheres. After a thorough soaking, the pressure is reduced allowing the CO2 to evaporate, or the pressurized CO2 is run through either water or charcoal filters to remove the caffeine. The carbon dioxide is then used on another batch of leaves. This same process can also be done with oxygen (O2). These liquids work better than water because they are kept in supercritical state near the transition from liquid to gas so that they have the high diffusion of gas and the high density of a liquid. This process has the advantage that it avoids the use of potentially toxic solvents

Direct Method Process:
In the direct method the tea leaves are first steamed for 30 minutes and then repeatedly rinsed with either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate for about 10 hours. The solvent is then drained away and the leaves steamed for an additional 10 hours to remove any residual solvent. Sometimes teas decaffeinated using ethyl acetate are referred to as naturally processed because ethyl acetate can be derived from various fruits or vegetables. However for the purpose of decaffeination it is not generally possible to create such a large quantity of ethyl acetate, thus the chemical is synthetically derived

Answer 2

Decaffeinate Tea

Answer 3

Decaffeinated if it is after dinner--you don't want to have trouble sleeping. The caffeine isn't the beneficial part of green tea. Otherwise, drinking coffee or soda would be recommended for losing weight.

Answer 4

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How do they decaffeinate tea?
How is caffein removed or minimised from tea?

Answer 5

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