The Caffeine in Tea Myth – BUSTED
June 30, 2009 – 10:08 amTeaFrog has recently reversed it’s stance on caffeine in tea, due to actual scientific evidence that we have been presented. This information has been around for sometime, but I will be the first to admit that we, as a company, were “taken in” by some very prevalent tea and caffeine myths due to insufficient research on our part.
Below is an excerpt from our website that reverses that position, and busts a number of myths about tea and caffeine. Our thanks go out to Nigel Melican for his constant hard work in trying to get the “real” information about tea and caffeine out there, as well as all his other hard work related to tea.
————————————————————-
“There is a lot of controversy about caffeine in Tea. In the past, the majority of tea retailers and wholesalers have reported that the levels of caffeine in black tea is higher than in green tea, and caffeine in Green tea is higher than White tea.
Studies and information have recently brought to light that this is NOT necessarily the case! There are some White teas that actually have more caffeine than Black teas, and Greens that have more than any other teas.
Because of this recent information, TeaFrog is joining a growing movement to fight the Caffeine myth in tea. We want to ensure that consumers receive the BEST and most UP TO DATE information regarding caffeine in tea. With that in mind, the following are a couple of myths about caffeine in tea that you should be aware of:
MYTH: You can decaffeinate tea by steeping it for 30 seconds and discarding that brew.
FACT: This is just simply not true. A study was done in 1996 that showed a 30 second decaffeination only removes 9% of the caffeine in the cup. This was data based on steeping of 6 different teas, each done three times to account for errors. The same study showed that on average, it took a steeping time of over 5 minutes to remove 80% of the caffeine, and more than 15 minutes (on average) to remove all caffeine. Needless to say, this would also remove all the flavour of the tea in the process!”
read more busted myths about tea and caffeine…
4 Responses to “The Caffeine in Tea Myth – BUSTED”
It’s good to see you set the record straight. I too was taken in by the misinformation about caffeine–or theine–in tea. And I confess I still think of Black Tea as giving me an edge if I want more caffeine. I know it isn’t true as a generalization like that but it’s hard to break the habit of trying to oversimplify what effects tea will have on you. I guess it’s more fun to just try different teas and see how they feel. That’s keeping it real.
By Jason Witt on Jul 16, 2009
I always thought there was a pecking order with caffeine and tea. That order being white, black, green respectively. I guess not. This info is helpful. Ill stay put.
By loose leaf tea lover on Aug 13, 2009
I think it’s great that you’re getting out and spreading the word about this. I wondered about this myself and started reading scientific studies and was surprised to find that much of the information out there, including some on “reputable” government-sponsored websites such as the USDA, is outright wrong.
On my website, RateTea.net, I have tried to address this issue too on my pages for black, green, and white tea.
Thanks for writing about this! More people need to get onto this one!
By Alex Zorach on Oct 26, 2009
Thanks Alex – keep up the good work in getting the word out there! (PS – Alex’s twitter is @ratetea)
By teafrog on Oct 26, 2009