How to Decaffinate Green Tea at Home

Good-quality Chinese green tea can produce four infusions from a single serving of leaves.

A common urban myth states that decaffeinating a pot of green tea is as simple as letting the leaves steep for 30 seconds, pouring off that first pot of tea, and then making a second pot with the same leaves. According to this myth, 80 to 90 percent of the caffeine in the tea is washed away when you pour off that first pot. A 2008 study at Asbury University, however, says that decaffeinating green tea is not that simple. This study states that it takes as much as six minutes of infusion to reduce the amount of caffeine in the pot by 80 percent. Decaffeinating tea is still possible using an infusion method; however, doing so requires good-quality tea and careful, perfect preparation.

Things You'll Need

• Tea
• Tea pot
• Thermometer
• Good-quality spring or filtered water
• Tea cups

Instructions

1. Brew the tea at the right temperature. Rinse the pot first in hot water. Measure out 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp. (3 g) of green tea for a 12 oz. pot and add it to the pot. Boil the water. Remove it from the heat. Insert the thermometer, and let the water sit until it temperature has dropped to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour the hot water over the tea. Green tea should be brewed in 180 to 200 degree water. If green tea is brewed in boiling water, the tea develops a "stewed" taste, and the leaves are damaged so they won't yield as many infusions.

2. Pour off the first pot of tea after three minutes. According to Dr. Bruce Branan, Professor of Chemistry at Asbury College, after this first infusion, 62 to 64 percent of the caffeine has now been removed from the tea leaves. Pour another 12 oz. of water, heated to 180 to 200 degrees, over the leaves and let it steep for another three minutes. Pour it off. At this point 85 to 87 percent of the caffeine is gone.

3. Make a third pot of tea to drink. Using the same temperature water, infuse the tea for one to two minutes. Pour it into tea cups to drink.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose a good-quality, loose green tea. A poor-quality tea will be little more than water once it's infused twice, which is necessary to decaffeinate tea. Zhuping Hodge, tea master and owner of Seven Cups Teahouse in Tucson, Arizona, says that a good-quality Chinese green tea can produce four pots of tea from the same leaves. Choose tea that is more leaves than buds. According to Nigel Melican, founder and managing director of Teacraft, Ltd., if your tea is 100 percent buds, it will contain 1/3 more caffeine than if it is the bud and the first two leaves. Choose loose tea, not tea bags. Loose tea is typically better quality and will give you more infusions. Bagged tea is tea dust or fannings and will infuse too quickly.

• Black tea is easier to decaffeinate than green. White tea made primarily from buds is harder to decaffeinate because it starts with more caffeine in the leaves.

• Don't rely on this method (or any other decaffeination method) if you are extremely sensitive to caffeine. If you absolutely must avoid caffeine, let the experts remove it or choose a caffeine-free herb tea.You can remove 75 to 90 percent of the caffeine (depending on the type of tea) using this DIY method, but you cannot remove it all.

References

• Seven Cups: How to Infuse Loose Leaf Tea
• Elmwood Inn: Too Easy to be True
• Asbury University: Tea Time: Biology Student Studies Tea Decaffeination
• The Tea FAQ: Tea Bags vs Loose Tea