I'm in Northern Thailand (tea growing area) now, looking around for a green tea without any caffeine (which hurts my sleep). I bought some supposedly caffeine free green tea, and there wasn't alot of caffeine in it but enough to keep me wired half the night. I see all these kinds of green teas here, like mulberry green tea and jasmine green tea. All I want is one without any caffeine at all. Any suggestions about what to get?
PS. I'm drinking it for the supposed health benefits, so I'm supposed to drink 5-10 cups a day, which is alot of caffeine if the tea contains even small amounts of caffeine.
The FAQ is perhaps a good place to start off this conversion:
From the FAQ:
"There are some brands of decaffeinated tea on the market, but unfortunately their quality is rarely very high. It is very difficult (perhaps impossible) to remove caffeine from tea without degrading its quality.
"On the other hand, it is possible to prepare ordinary tea so as to remove most (not all) of the caffeine from the finished product. Caffeine is very water-soluble, more so than many of the flavor components in tea. So a very brief infusion can remove much of the caffeine while preserving flavor.
"Here's how to do it: boil enough water for twice as many cups as you intend to drink. Pour the normal amount of water over the leaves, then infuse for twenty to thirty seconds. Pour off the resulting brew and discard, retaining the leaves. Bring the water to a boil again and pour it over the same leaves, this time infusing for the normal three to five minutes. This infusion is the one to drink.
"This method can also be used to prepare a highly caffeinated drink without many of the sedative components ordinarily found in the cup. Don't bother with a second infusion; just drink the results of the twenty- to thirty-second infusion. One of my philosophical colleagues swears by it, saying it's the only source of caffeine that gives him a 'clean burn.' This method is, of course, not much use to those of us who 'drink tea for the flavor.'"
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