Caffeine reduction in tea

[Webley]

Is it possible to maybe reduce the amount of caffeine in tea by doing pre rinses before brewing. I have a caffeine sensitivity and would be interested if anyone had tried this.

[pedant]

a lot of good-tasting stuff is similarly soluble and available. you'd have to throw out the baby with the bath water.
it's worth a try, but i doubt you're going to find a suitable compromise between caffeine reduction and flavor.

[Youzi]

Is it possible to maybe reduce the amount of caffeine in tea by doing pre rinses before brewing. I have a caffeine sensitivity and would be interested if anyone had tried this.

You can just use less leaves. Then the caffein will be instantly less too.

[StoneLadle]

Grandpa used to say, don't drink tea on an empty stomach...

He also said, don't drink green tea at night...

He also said, drink older tea, it's better for you...

I didn't listen to grandpa last night on #1 and #3 and saw the sunrise this morning...

[LeoFox]

Oolongs or pu -erh with less buds tend to have less caffeine.

[Victoria]

I find black teas made with big leafed Camellia Sinensis Assamica like Assam, Ceylon, English Breakfast, Earl Grey have higher caffeine content, whereas C. Sinensis Sinensis variety less so. Oolong is typically relaxing helping me focus.

[wave_code]

I've been trying to cut down my caffeine intake lately and try and keep it pretty moderate. there are probably some better options than just over-rinsing your teas though. sorry to be pedantic if you've already tried a lot of these things, just what comes to mind for me...

for one thing maybe try finding teas you like that are naturally less-caffeinated- things that aren't quite so tippy, or maybe avoid things like white teas. also depending on what flavors you like maybe you can find things which are decaffeinated by nature of their processing. I'm not big on sencha, but I love hojicha and roasted banchas and twig teas. If I understand correctly I think even green bancha tends to have lower caffeine levels than sencha because it isn't the earlier/higher grade leaves. I know a lot of folks here drink pu or other things in the evening, but I'm not a very good sleeper, so if its evening time and I really want something I stick to roasted japanese teas or something like chrysanthemum.

what I've found with doing gong-fu style is that it also becomes worth hunting down smaller pots if you can manage it. I have been using the usual 100ml/5g, but lately I've been looking for smaller pots than 100ml since with higher grade teas I find 80/70 is sufficient if the tea goes a long time. less caffeine plus makes your nicer teas last longer. smaller gaiwans or small porcelain pots seem like a more budget friendly way of trying that out.

[mbanu]

Best solution is to shrink the size. A good way to do this is to use a gongfu-sized pot or gaiwan for non-gongfu brewing. You can always make another pot if you want to, but this way you also have the option to drink less.

If you must gongfu, go for the smallest sizes, those pots that seem almost like they were made for novelty's sake rather than for people to drink out of. They are harder to work with, but gongfu requires effort (it's in the name, after all). To adjust for the heat-loss from the smaller size, a good choice is to do gongfu the old way with a boiling water-bath for the teapot.

[LeoFox]

Try reducing temperature:



https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ukial_teas

[pase22]

Is it possible to maybe reduce the amount of caffeine in tea by doing pre rinses before brewing. I have a caffeine sensitivity and would be interested if anyone had tried this.

It may help a little. There are some reasonably good quality decafs, but generally limited to breakfast blends and OP. White tea is milder on caffeine levels so could be a viable option. Rooibos is caffeine free, though I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

[TeaTotaling]

Gradually consume more caffeine, build up a tolerance, and become less sensitive.

[Victoria]

Gradually consume more caffeine, build up a tolerance, and become less sensitive.

There is something to this concept, having partially grown up in Brazil and Argentina and drinking strong espresso / cafézinho my caffeine tolerance is high.

[klepto]

I had 6 steepings of raw puerh at 2:30am in a 100ml gaiwan and went right to sleep afterwards. The caffeine used to bother me but now it doesn't. Night tea time is excellent, no noise or distractions so you can enjoy every sip. I've noticed that if I am distracted or irritated I can't taste taste the flavors in tea that I had previously.

[Slurp]

Is it possible to maybe reduce the amount of caffeine in tea by doing pre rinses before brewing. I have a caffeine sensitivity and would be interested if anyone had tried this.

You can just use less leaves. Then the caffein will be instantly less too.

So will the flavour.

[Slurp]

Gradually consume more caffeine, build up a tolerance, and become less sensitive.

There is something to this concept, having partially grown up in Brazil and Argentina and drinking strong espresso / cafézinho my caffeine tolerance is high.

This approach worked for me. For years I only drank decaf tea, until a friend gave me some amazing full-caffeine tea. So much better flavour than the decaf stuff. Probably took me 2 years to get to the point where the caffeine didn't bother me anymore, but the ability to consume caffeine opened up a world of new teas that one simply can't find in decaf at all.