How To Have Your Green Tea Caffeine Free

by Kevin Moore

So you’ve heard that green tea is good for you and have considered trying it out to see what the big fuss is all about. Perhaps you may be looking for an alternative to coffee, wanting to cut back on the caffeine. Although there is caffeine in green tea, the typical cup contains just one fifth that of coffee, or around 30mg. Still, let’s say that isn’t good enough - you want decaf green tea. There are things to be considered first.If you have checked out what is on the grocery store shelf, sitting amongst the green tea teabags is usually a decaf green tea version or two. Easy choice, right? Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. Most consumers are not aware that the decaffeination process pretty much ruins the major health benefits associated with green tea. There are numerous reasons for this, but to understand why, you need to have an idea on how green tea is processed. It all has to do with oxygen.Have you ever noticed what an apple looks like after it’s been cut and has sat on the counter for half an hour? It starts to turn brown. That is from contact with the air, or more specifically, the oxygen in the air. When you drink regular English tea, those leaves have been exposed to oxygen and fermented that way on purpose. This gives black tea its unique taste. Green tea, however, is quite the opposite. Although it comes from the exact same species of plant (Camellia Sinensis) as black tea, it is picked and then processed immediately to prevent oxidation of the leaves. This processing involves steaming, rolling, and drying, and takes about three hours from start to finish. There really is no place in the processing where a decaffeination process would work and not ruin the tea. Decaffeinated green tea is just about unheard of in Japan, home of the world’s finest green teas. So does that mean one cannot drink decaffeinated green tea? If it’s a caffeine free cup that you insist on, your best bet is to start with a high quality loose leaf Japanese green tea, preferably from the first harvest, one that is very fresh, and one that has “not” been processed to remove caffeine. Since nearly all of the caffeine is in the first infusion, getting a quality cup of decaf green tea is as simple as brewing an infusion, dumping it, and then immediately re-brewing. Although a green tea connoisseur may cringe at the though of dumping that most tasty, aromatic first infusion, the reality is that the 2nd infusion of a high quality green tea is nearly always going to be better than the first infusion of the best decaffeinated green tea on the market.

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