I have to admit that caffeine has defeated me. I'm finding myself unable to drink teas regularly without getting a bit wound up in the evening sometimes. But I -=miss=- tea so! There are so many intriguing flavors.
So I checked out some decaf teas, but they taste like they have a whole shot through their middle, seemingly whether I go cheap or pricey.
Is there such a thing as a decaf Pu Erh or Liu An or similar? I'm wondering if the earthiness of Pu Erh might fill the whole with dirt, as it were. :) I tried googling for "decaf puerh" and "decaf pu erh", but didn't find much.
I always hate to say never, but I think I'll pull it out here... you will never find a decaf pu-erh or Liu An. Instead let me offer a few suggestions:
Pu-Erh generally receives a rinse first no matter what and is good for multiple steeps. So follow that rinse with a 30 second to 1 minute brew and toss that as well. At this point the caffiene should be much lower.
Drink less quantity. Instead of sitting down to a large pot of tea, make a very small yixing potfull and have only two or three steeps, about 8-10oz. total.
Try some other types of tea, instead of strong fermented black teas try some white or green teas something along the lines of a Pi Lo Chun that is very light and delicate... and even these can be reduced with a
30 second steep discarded first before brewing.
My final suggestion is to take the tea in a calm and relaxed setting, some calming meditation music or chinese folk instrumentals or classical and make it a relaxing experience, your level of stimulation will be much lower and you should be fine.
Some people are more tolerant than others with caffiene, so what may work for others will not work for you. But at least you have a few options to try.
I think you're onto something here. Good Pu'er usually gets better for a few steeps, and it can stand high temperatures, which also helps get the caffeine out. If you're really sensitive to caffeine, 30 to
60 seconds might not be enough to get the caffeine level down enough.
Sorry, but I don't think this makes sense. I've never seen any evidence that delicate green teas have less caffeine than e.g. red/black teas. And greens really don't like high temperatures.
Yes, with Pu-Erh especially the wasted brews aren't really a bad thing, so th eOP is a bit lucky. A 30 second rinse followed by a 1 minute steep discarded should bring it down significantly.
Caffeine Content Comparisons The following is the approximate caffeine content of various beverages (Based on 8oz. of tea) Item | Milligrams of Caffeine | Average per serving Range Coffee (5 oz. cup) 80 40 - 170 Cola (12 oz. can) 45 30 - 60 Black Tea (one tea bag) 40 25 - 110 Oolong Tea (one tea bag) 30 12 - 55 Green Tea (one tea bag) 20 8 - 30 White Tea (one tea bag) 15 6 - 25 Decaf Tea (one tea bag) 2 1 - 4 Herbal Tea (one tea bag) 0 0
Hopefully the gods of formatting were semi kind and the above is readable.
I drink a lot of green tea, and I can say that I can feel less caffiene from more delicate greens than heavier ones. This is only my anecdotal evidence and personal opinion though, I have not tested it. White/Green tea does indeed contain less caffiene though than an oolong or black tea. A good white tea like silver needles generally is a nice in-between of a white and a light green.
I've heard that a 60 second steep will remove 95% of caffeine. That's with a teabag though, more surface area, you might need to finely break the pu up or steep longer.
What's your source for this? Did they brew the different kinds of tea the same way?
If you look at this caffeine analysis of many teas of each type
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you'll see there's essentially no trend across the different types. As Nigel Melican, a consultant to tea growers and manufacturers who occasionally posts here, said a couple of years ago,
All of which goes to show that quoting any particular caffeine percentage for a given tea type (and many people do) should be fringed with caveats and exact data given as to how it was processed and when it was grown. In the main none of this information is available to the producer, let alone the seller.
I would guess that, like most people who know tea, you brew delicate ones differently, giving them less heat and/or brewing time. That would yield less caffeine per steep.
I'm sorry I can't find a reference for this right now, but I'm sure I've read that tea buds - used in Silver Needles - actually are higher in caffeine than tea leaves, and that young leaves have more caffeine than mature ones. I seem to remember an evolutionary explanation for this related to protecting the most valuable parts of the plant from insect predation.
Those numbers came from Stash tea co. and were just an example, I understand it is a debated topic and I'm really not into caring about it enough to debate it. If it is bunk so be it, I was just offering something to show the OP and you. I have found many similar charts and I have also seen charts with barely no variation... FWIW.
Which is why I said it. It isn't that I'm suggesting killing it with high heat or long steeps just that a quick rinse steep and a light infusion or two would help.
To be true decaf it needs to be 98%+ free, the best you will do with a discarded 5 minute brew is 65%-75% - Food research International, Vol
29, 325-330 (1996)
I would think a 65%-75% reduction would be pretty damn good to solve the OP's dilema.
Umm, not to be a dick but even in the link you provided you can clearly see that Silver Needles is lower than the other whites and many of the greens just as I said... it is an inbetween and a good choice for someone caring about caffiene as the OP.
As I've said before, and again here, I have no care for technical analysis of tea. If I drink a tea and it keeps me awake then I don't drink it before bed. If I drink a tea and it calms me I drink it in the evenings before bed. In either case the actual caffiene data may not match with me... but what does it matter? To me it is all very simple, and requires no pie charts, bar graphs, or analytical equipment. I was just offering some suggestions, they may work they may not.
Well, I've found a reference for at least part of the above. In Barundeb Banerjee, _Tea Production and Processing_ (1993, New Delhi and Calcutta), it's stated that young shoots have more caffeine than mature leaves on p. 285. Unfortunately, the book has nothing to say about buds as opposed to the leaves in young shoots.
That statement is surely referring to buds v. older leaves in the same plant. I think their numbers show well that across varietals, growing regions, processing styles, etc., generalizations are not particularly feasible.
Another possibility: Dog Ma has opined here in the past that since caffeine is highly water soluble, steeping the leaves in room temp water for a while (and discarding it) before brewing them in hot might leave a satisfactory flavor with less caffeine.
Since the interesting thing to be measured isn't exact caffeine levels in the cup so much as the OP's response to it in specific brewed tea, I agree that trying different teas, discarding initial steeps, etc., seems like a good things to try.
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