Decaffeinate Your Tea Naturally

Decaffeinate Your Tea Naturally

Photo Credit: Olsonography ~ Portraits from the Heart

Don’t you love it when you find out that something you’ve been doing for years is not only frugal but good for you? On my recent trip to Charleston with the Bigelow Tea Company I found out that I had been naturally decaffeinating my tea and being frugal about it all at the same time!

I tend to start my day with a cup of tea. I don’t like really strong tea so I usually let my tea bag steep for only a minute or two. Then I set the bag aside for my next cup. I do this throughout the day until I feel like I’ve wrung the last vestiges out of the bag and then I throw it away. Pretty frugal if you ask me! What I also learned was by doing it that way I was naturally decaffeinating it.

During our Tea 101 session with Cindi Bigelow she taught us that there are three basic types of tea; black, oolong, and green. Herbal tea is technically not a tea because it contains herbs and fruits but no actual tea leaves. If you look on your grocery shelves you’ll notice that most of your favorite blends come in regular or decaffeinated. When it is packaged this way the caffeine is chemically removed.

Unless you are under doctor’s orders to avoid caffeine altogether you can decaffeinate your tea yourself in your own home and skip the chemical step. Another way to be frugal . . . buy one box instead of two! Here’s the process:

1. Place tea bag in cup and pour hot water over it covering the tea bag by about an inch.

2. Let it steep for at least one minute.

3. After one minute remove tea bag and discard the liquid.

4. Replace tea bag in cup and pour hot water over it filling the cup.

5. Let it steep for desired amount of time (to taste preference).

6. Remove tea bag and enjoy your naturally decaffeinated tea!

Studies have shown that the caffeine is released within the first minute of brewing. So if you discard the first batch of tea you are also discarding the caffeine. How awesome is that?!!

Now I personally want/need that first little kick of caffeine so I don’t discard my first batch. But it is nice to know that for the rest of the day I’m not consuming excess amounts of caffeine that I probably don’t really need. (Want yes, need no!)

For me tea is the perfect beverage. I don’t tend to add sugar so it is calorie free. As said above after the second cup it is naturally decaffeinated. My favorite part is really how my body metabolizes it. The properties of tea make me alert yet relaxed which is the perfect combination.

I’d like to leave you with a little video put together by Bigelow Tea that talks in depth about decaffeinating tea. Enjoy!