Tea People,
I just watched the "Caffeinated" episode of Unwrapped on the Food Nework. The master blender (or taster or whatever his title was) at Lipton said that a 15-20 second steep will SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the caffeine levels of subsequent steeps. ARGH!!!!
Thanks. I just had to vent.
Alan
Do you really think he's ignorant ("should know better")? I suspect he's just stretching the truth as far as possible without telling a lie. Maybe I'm just cynical. And I didn't see the show, of course.
/Lew
Why would a man who sells mediocre tea to millions who may or may not be affected by caffeine lie? And, how much expertise does it take to be a "Master Blender" for Lipton? I've just jumped into the cynical pool. Shen
Heh, I thought the same thing the first time I saw that episode but then they go into the 20+ (IIRC) teas they blend to keep the flavor consistent. I'm sure it is actually a fairly skilled job but still mediocre. I'd guess it would be like being Master Vintner at Arbor Mist.
- Dominic
P.S. So your saying the 15-20 second steep won't reduce the caffeine? :)
where again is the link to the study that says it takes much longer to get out the caffeine? Couldn't find it from before. thx
Nigel! Nigel! Where are you, Nigel?? It's the old caffeine sticky mess again...................we need you! Shen
I set the wayback machine to skip over the em eye five messages and found this:
I don't believe we ever found conclusive results for short steeps (shorter than five minutes) though.
To answer MarshallN's question: no, I don't consider 15-20% significant (yes, I saw your smiley). Part of the problem, as I'm sure WE all know, is that people are looking for a way to decaffeinate their favorite tea, where "decaffeinate" means "remove almost all caffeine". Yes, 15-20% may be significant from a science experiment point of view, but not from the POV of someone who has to avoid caffeine for health reasons.
While most of us here look down on Lipton, I have to believe that even a brand that caters to the masses is employing someone who knows something about tea to do their blending. Keep in mind that the problem with putting out a consistent product is that it is consistently mediocre. Think about it: you have to be able to produce the same product during good years and bad years. It simply cannot be top quality every time. The bar has to be lowered to be able to jump over it each year.
Alan
there is already a whole string of comments there, too, which make interesting reading, and to which readers are invited to contribute.
One thing I haven't seen addressed: with black tea I use one steeping, or occasionally two. With green tea I use up to seven steepings. I think what I do may be typical of a lot of others' practice. If so, it would seem to be that even if black and green tea start out as essentially the same in caffeine, the later steepings of green tea would have less. Toci
Which is of course why you must increase the steep time, each time. I always thought I lost almost all the caffeine in the first steep. But now, if those studies are right, it seems that you can get fairly consistent caffeine on subsequent steepings by increasing the time a minute or so each time.
In fact, now that I mention it, I'd love to see an experiment where they compare the caffeine in 4-5 different cups, all steeped from the same leaves with the same amt of water. First steep is for (say) 2 minutes, second is for 3 minutes, third is for 4, etc. I bet you'd get fairly consistent caffeine in all the pours.
Hello to scientific tea lovers.
Tea brew , basically , is a complex mixture of so many dissolved chemicals ( which were initially present in the tea leaf ) in water , besides the chemicals present in water used . So the resultant tea brew depends upon the
* Quantity, Quality and temperature of water used * Quantity and Quality of tea used. * The brewing process ( time of brewing etc) used * and the solubility of the chemicals present in tea. Solubility of different compounds in tea leaf in boiling water . decreases as we go down below the following list of compounds.-Caffeine gives bitter taste and I have never found a bitter taste in first 15- 20 second steep in any tea tasted by me and I found them rather sweet since it contained maximum percentage of sweet carbohydrates). So "Lipton said that a 15-20 second steep will SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the caffeine levels of subsequent steeps" is unscientific. Scientific part of my mind tells me that people interested in less caffeine should prefer ist steep of 15-20 seconds, in comparision to later steeps.
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