Caffiene in tea - Long brew vs. Short brew

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, except in that since the caffeine comes out very quickly, using a smaller amount of tea and steeping for longer will result in a cup with less caffeine.

That is, as you continue steeping, after the first minute the caffeine has pretty much mostly come out, but other things still keep coming out.

The question is how you like your tea to taste.

--scott

It's true that most of the caffeine is released in the first 15-30 seconds of steeping. I think that the posts and/or information you're thinking of are in support of reducing the caffeine by doing a quick short steep, tossing it out, and brewing a second cup (which then would have less caffeine).

A longer steep will have just as much caffeine as a shorter steep, perhaps more if there's any of it lingering around in the leaf after that first 30 seconds.

I mean to say, tea can never have any more caffeine, but it certainly can have less.

I have seen the same story, but article didn't say the cafeine disappeared, its effect was only compensating by other elements (tanins ?) that have a calming effect and are released in the brew later than the cafeine.

Kuri

And I could have sworn I saw something somewhere -- maybe in the FAQ to this group, maybe elsewhere -- wherein the writer described the process for decaffeinating tea with the 30-second rinse, and added that a friend preferred to actually drink the results of the wash because it was the only thing that gave him a "clean burn" -- all the caffeine, without the other compounds that give tea its sedative effects.

stePH now drinking: Red Hook IPA

Linda schrieb:

Hi Linda,

I suppose it refers to the old story, that tannins (which infuse more the longer the tea steeps) alter biochemically the coffein so that it is no longer active. Despite this is total rubbish, esp. in Germany this story ist VERY popular (even the German wikipedia article cites it as a fact). Maybe you read or saw something similar?

In Germany it is also very popular to think (because of this mentioned above, and because of the idea tannins should work like a mild sedative) that tea with a long infusion time has a sedating effect. So people go to their doctors or even to a sleep lab and complain they can't sleep at all anymore despite they drink a pot of long-steeped tea every evening. And they all know someone who does that too and for him/her that works fine. If you ask, it is mostly an old lady, which is likeliy because caffein in older people has a paradox effect. But anybody else gives himself a good strong caffeine shot - no question why they cannot sleep ...

Btw the only thing on what tannins have a "sedating" effect, is your gastro-intestinal tract.

Greetz, Dieter

Just to beat this horsefly dead scientifically:

For a given amount of tea flavor, you can do one of two things:

Steep 10 g of tea in a cup of water for 30 seconds. Steep 2 g of tea in a cup of water for 3 mnutes.

But the first of these will give you nearly 5 times as much caffeine, because almost all the caffeine is released in the first 30 seconds.

(Actually, I think the first cup will still taste and look rather weak; I may have to try it and see...but it's a lot of tea to use up in a hurry...and the only inexpensive leaf tea I have right now is decaf, so other chemical effects may be altered in it as well...)

--Blair

Isn't the first procedure you describe basically gong-fu?

stePH in cup: Stash ginger peach (black)

The component you're thinking of isn't tannins, but theanine, which is an amino acid. It not only modulates caffeine's stimulant effect, it also counteracts astringency.

/Lew

Lots of people believe this, but I've never seen the record of an actual measurement supporting the idea. Can you point to one?

/Lew

A 2001 paper by a Unilever Research team from Bedford, England, found that anything from growing conditions to the age of leaves, plant cultivars and methods of cultivation affects tea's caffeine content. All these things remaining equal, the temperature of water, leaves to water ratio and steeping times also have a big impact on caffeine in the end brew.

When it comes to steeping times specifically, it is true that a lot of the caffeine content is extracted in the first thirty seconds. As the brew time increases, the rate at which caffeine is extracted from the leaves slows down-but that's doesn't mean that the longer leaves are steeped, the less caffeine content the brew will have. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

According to this study, 34.6% of caffeine is extracted from the average teabag in the first 30 seconds of infusion. This figure will go up to just over 50% after a minute. After 5 minutes, the total caffeine extracted from the leaves will have gone up to more than 90%. By contrast, polyphenols are extracted more slowly, with just 19.9% extracted in the first 30 seconds. So the longer you steep your tea, the lower you push the rate of caffeine extraction per second and the ratio of caffeine to polyphenols--but the overall amount of caffeine will go up. Of course, if you are discarding the first infusion, the subsequent brews will have less caffeine and comparatively more polyphenols. Although the study looked specifically at teabags, I believe they said its results could be extended to loose leaves too.

The Linus Pauling Institute

has a quick overview of caffeine in tea with links to the abstracts of a number of studies, if anyone is interested.