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Tea Geek: Understanding CO2 Decaffeination

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Caffeine Chemical Makeup - Decaffeination Doesn't Remove It All!

Chemical Makeup of Caffeine

Is decaffeinated tea something you drink regularly? Ever wonder how tea is decaffeinated? The process for decaffeinating tea is much like washing dishes in a sink, though with a few extra steps so you actually end up with clean dishes (tea) rather than dishes that have sat in swirling, dirty water (albeit with a bit of soap for good measure).

As you may know, there are several methods by which tea (and coffee for that matter) are decaffeinated. While coffee has the “swiss water method” in addition, tea is predominantly decaffeinated using one of two methods, the ethyl acetate or the CO2 method. While the ethyl acetate method is referred to as natural decaffeination, the chemical, an organic solvent technically, appears in many products including nail polish remover and cigarettes. Doesn’t exactly leave a great taste in your mouth to learn that, does it? This is one of the reasons why high quality tea companies like Dominion Tea, steer clear of “natural decaffeination”.

Given that we humans generally exhale carbon dioxide (CO2), its use in decaffeination is something that consumers find much more appealing than the alternatives. You may have heard the CO2 process referred to as a CO2 bath or as using supercritical CO2 but what is this really?

Tea Decaffeination with Supercritical CO2

Diagram of phases of CO2 - supercritical fluid is used in decaffeination.

Carbon Dioxide at various temperatures and pressures. (Public Domain)

In a nutshell supercritical CO2 is carbon dioxide held under very high pressure in a state where this gas actually becomes somewhat liquid (almost a thick fog). Remove the pressure and the liquid turns into a gas and evaporates. Nice, clean and simple. However, you wouldn’t to wash dishes in a sink and simply pull the plug, leaving the detergent and all the leftover food and grease to sit and dry back onto the dishes would you? So clearly this process has a couple extra steps…

The process for decaffeinating tea with supercritical CO2 requires some mechanism to separate the caffeine from the tea so it doesn’t remain after the CO2 is removed. There are several methods for doing this, all starting with tea in a closed container of CO2 at 3,700 to 5,000 pounds of pressure per square inch! After “bathing” the tea in supercritical CO2, various mechanisms are used to move the caffeine away from the tea before pressure is removed and the leftover CO2 evaporates.

Incidentally, the leftover caffeine isn’t pitched. Instead, its sold to other companies which use it in soda, sports products, and even some foods.

Challenges with Supercritical CO2 Decaffeination

There are several challenges with this process of producing decaf tea, some technical, and some with the resulting product. The removal of caffeine tends also to remove other flavor compounds since carbon dioxide can’t perfectly target only caffeine. So the various methods seek to try to limit removal of other “good” compounds or add them back. Each of these processes add time and cost to the end product. Some are more energy, time, and labor intensive than others. However, all methods result in a cost per pound of decaf tea that is significantly higher than that of fully caffeinated tea.

Technical challenges aside, from a consumer perspective the decaf tea costs more to purchase, may have a flat or at least less flavor, and still has a low level of caffeine in it. Since it still has caffeine, even drinking decaf tea in the afternoon or evenings can leave some with jitters or trouble falling asleep.

Since the labor and cost of decaf tea is high, and comes with less flavor, companies typically only decaffeinate a select number of teas. In the case of Dominion Tea, this is why you won’t find a lot of decaffeinated tea options. We do have a couple (Earl Grey Decaf and Summer Peach Decaf), however we prefer to focus on great tasting fully caffeine free options with a rooibos or honeybush base or select herbal teas.

 

Sources:

US Patent US4976979 A – Process for the decaffeination of tea, by Hubertus Klima, Erwin Schutz, Heinz-Rudiger Vollbrecht, https://google.com/patents/US4976979

US Patent US5288511 A – Supercritical carbon dioxide decaffeination of acidified coffee, by Peter T. Kazlas, Richard D. Novak, Raymond J. Robey, https://google.com/patents/US5288511

Almond Tea: How to Make Your Own

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Almond blossoms and the fruit which is found in almond tea.

Almond Blossoms by flickr user Victor R. Ruiz (CC BY 2.0)

Almond tea is becoming harder find, and that is not surprising. Most almonds in the United States are grown in California, which is suffering from a record drought. Like any orchard crop that requires water, when it doesn’t get enough it will not produce enough high quality final product. This sends the cost sky rocketing, making it harder for for industries that use almonds as an ingredient to keep their costs in line with what consumers expect. Adding higher cost to an ingredient that dramatically cuts the shelf life of your end tea product already, and eliminating almond tea makes good economic sense for most high quality tea producers. However, that doesn’t mean an end consumer cannot make their own almond tea in smaller batches to enjoy at home.

Before we get to the recipe,there are a few things you need to know about almonds.

Shelf Life of Almond Tea

Nuts and tea have very different self lives making it very tricky for a tea blender to come up with a high quality product, in a quantity that is cost effective, that features a nut as the main flavor component of the tea. Most nuts, once cut or crushed start to release their oils and in return take in air, moisture, and bacteria, which starts the spoiling process. Almonds are usually only good for two months, under the best storage conditions, once they have been cut. If you are blending that with a tea that is good for 24 to 36 months you have effectively killed the shelf life of your tea. So to ensure a good quality flavor and try to keep your tea from going rancid because of the nuts, extracts are used to apply the majority of the flavor. In fact, if you look at most teas with a nut like flavor, you will not find nuts in them, but extracts and flavors, which bring out the nut taste. Citric acid and other preservatives can be applied to the nuts to slow the degradation, but that is very tricky in tea as the boiling water will release the preservatives, usually causing a bitter flavor. Now, at home, the use of preservatives is not necessary as you will be making smaller batches that are not traveling to various stores and sitting in storage for who knows how long before being consumed. So we will use a combination of extract and almond pieces to make our tea recipe.

Almond Flavor and Size

Almonds have a very subtle flavor, which usually comes out bolder when toasted or cooked. So you would think boiling an almond would help bring out more flavor, but it doesn’t. To really get an almond flavor after applying boiling water, you need extract. Just putting in almond pieces will not get you the flavor you are after. When blending tea, we are constantly worried about the size and shapes of ingredients so that they all balance together to distribute evenly in the bag that is going to be shipped and stored in fashions out of our control. So we have the ingredients cut to the right size to complement the size of the tea leaves being used. At home, this may not be much of a concern to you but if you care about the almonds being distributed in your tea evenly you will want to follow our instructions on creating the almond meal instead of just using the sliced almonds. If even distribution does not bother you, then free to use larger almond pieces.

Almond Tea Recipe

Almond Tea usually includes extract to bring out the flavor.

Home Made Almond Tea

This recipe is geared to get you 15 cups of tea. If you do not think that is enough, you can double this recipe, but don’t go too large as the almonds will only keep for maybe 1 to 2 months (Do you really know how old that almond is you just bought off the shelf?). 2 oz of tea is about 30 cups or 1 months worth if you drink a cup every day.

1 oz of your favorite straight black unflavored tea (English Breakfast is my favorite for this. If you use Irish Breakfast, add an 1/8 teaspoon more extract)

3/4 teaspoon of almond extract

1 1/2 tablespoons of almond pieces or slices (skip the roasted or salted ones – look in the bulk food aisle of your grocery store)

For easier grinding, lightly heat the almond pieces in a dry cast iron pan. You can leave them in their long enough to toast them, but really you are just warming them up. Be careful not to burn them as it will ruin the tea.

For even distribution of the almonds, buy slivered almonds and put the warmed almonds and extract into a mortar and pestle and grind down until it looks like corn meal. Scrape into a glass jar (quart size or larger) or ziplock bag and then add the tea. Shake until everything looks evenly distributed. Pour the tea out onto wax paper and allow to dry at least 12 hours. At first this is going to have a very heavy alcohol smell from the extract. Don’t worry, as it dries that will disappear. You will notice after a few hours the smell gets smoother and more almond like. You can then put the tea back into the sealed bag, glass jar or air tight container, remember to keep it in the dark. If you need to speed up the drying process, you can use a dehydrator at its lowest setting for about 1 hour, check every 20 minutes as you run the risk of burning the tea.

You will brew this like any other tea. 1 teaspoon or 3 grams per 8 ounces of water, steep in boiling water for up to 5 minutes. Don’t be surprised if it is a little cloudy, that is the oil for the ground almonds.

Now that you have a base recipe for almond tea, you can get creative and try it with other subtle flavored teas like New World Vanilla. Enjoy your new tea and don’t forget to drink it more frequently so it is gone before the almonds go bad!

Water Quality for a Great Tea Experience

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Water droplets.

Do you have great water quality for your tea? Are you sure?

Are you sacrificing a great cup of tea because your water leaves a little something to be desired? Water is the single biggest ingredient in your cup of tea so making sure you have great water quality is a great idea; especially if you have a well!

What is Water Quality?

Well the answer, like that of what is quality tea is, it depends. Water quality can be subjective and depends on the application. It’s really probably better to think in terms of fitness for use. Quality water for swimming, showering, and washing clothes is a very different discussion from the water quality desired for tea.

Its important to start off with a baseline. A large part of what we are trying to do when we make a cup of tea is steep leaves in water in order to extract the favor (and usually caffeine as well) from the leaves. The leaves contain both water soluble and water in-soluble compounds that can impact flavor.  And some of these compounds are more soluble than others at a given temperature. We are looking to extract desirable flavor compounds while minimizing the tannins which result in bitterness.

So for tea we are looking for the ideal water to extract the right amount of flavor.

All We Want is Fresh Clear Water, Right?

Since we are looking for the best water to extract the right balance of flavor what does this look like?  In short, fresh clean water, without off odors, and which has some minerals but isn’t too hard. Sounds easy right?  Here are a few things you will want to know.

  • Tap water is not the same across the country.  Some areas have naturally harder (or softer) water than others. Hardness being a measure of dissolved minerals. The ideal hardness for tea is between 50 and 100 parts per million.
  • Calcium in water creates scale which damages electric tea kettles and increases the energy required to boil water.
  • Public water supplies may have added chlorine and fluoride, may not be as soft as desired, and after travelling through a network of pipes, may not be as clean as you think.
  • Private (aka well) water may be all over the map. It depends where you live, how deep a well you have, what the local geology looks like, and more. While well water is tested for new wells this is minimal testing, primarily for coliform.  It’s not necessarily for radon, pesticides, hardness,  or other things which impact water quality.
  • We do not want distilled water or reverse osmosis water.  The former leaves behind all minerals but not volatile organic compounds (for example benzene or other fuel-related components).  The latter provides pure water with no minerals; flat, boring, and providing an equally boring cup of tea.

Getting Great Water Quality for Tea

First and foremost get your water tested.  If you are on public water you can get a good baseline from the annual water quality report put out by your jurisdiction. However, this will only have basic information in it and won’t account for what happens on the journey from source to destination. It’s a great idea to get your personal water supply tested.  If you are on a well this is really a must as water quality changes over time due to groundwater changes or due to damage to your well head or casing. As a homeowner you will only know the full details of your water by testing yourself. The CDC offers some thoughts on testing.

After testing, consider available solutions to address your water situation. This may be a basic sediment filter, a carbon filter to remove odors and other organics, softening through sodium (salt) ion exchange, and/or scale inhibitors.  Its important to realize that there generally is not a one-sized fits all solution, you may use a combination of methods, and you may want to consider cost and options for treating all your water or only drinking water.

One more note on water quality. While we stated that its different from place to place there are exceptions for large nationwide coffee/tea chains and similar establishments. These businesses are looking for an exact flavor experience every time regardless of which shop you visit. These establishments actually use reverse osmosis to remove everything from the water. Then they use a pre-formulated solution to add back the exact mineral content for exactly the same water, everywhere!

Finally, A Note on Descaling Your Electric Kettle

Pamukkale Travertines of Turkey. Water quality for tea is a measure of disolved solids. In this case lots of calcium formed the travertines.

Extreme Example of Calcium (Scale) Buildup at the Pamukkale Travertines in Tukey. Photo by flickr user SaraYeomans (CC BY 2.0)

We find it amusing that the answer to scale or calcium buildup in your kettle is to purchase special descaling chemicals. However, regular descaling, as if it occurs at the same rate everywhere, is exactly what many electric kettle manuals even claim you should do! Scale, or calcium buildup depends on water hardness which, as we’ve seen, varies dramatically across the country as well as between well and municipal water. So descaling monthly is a bit inappropriate for many consumers. Regardless, you can use white vinegar to remove scale, so why buy something else? More importantly, if you are looking to enjoy your tea and you have excessive mineral buildup in your kettle then you have a bigger problem: hard water. By now you know that the first step is to have your water tested so you know what you are dealing with, can treat it appropriately to have great water quality, and ultimately have a great tea experience.

 

Tea Storage for Optimal Freshness and Shelf Life

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Correct tea storage provides the longest shelf life possible. This is important for all tea drinkers as your want your last cup to be as good as your first. So to get this correct, we need some basic understanding of how tea interacts with the environment and what the expected shelf life of tea really is. Keep in mind, if stored correctly the expected shelf life can go out much further than what is indicated below. The taste of tea, however, will change on you from when you first bought.

Then we can figure out where and how to store tea. Below is a chart that lays out the different types of teas and how long they are expected to keep their original flavor for if given the optimal treatment in the trip to market and then onto your shelves at home.

Tea Type Expected Shelf Live Tea Storage Comments
Black 24-36 months Since this tea is generally dried longer, it will last longer under the right conditions.
Oolong 12-36 months The darker the oolong the longer the shelf life.
Green and Yellow 6-24 months The British Tea Council advises to drink the green teas before 6 months as the anti-oxidants will break down over time. If taste is more your concern, you are fine going out 12 months for most.
White 6-12 months Since white tea is made from younger leaves with the least amount of manufacturing, so this is not a tea to keep long.
Blended with Flavoring 6-36 months Extracts have long shelf lives, so it is the tea base that will dictate this shelf life
Blended with spices, flowers, herbs 6-12 months Here the spices more than the tea dictate the shelf life. Cinnamon, mint, and cloves will start to lose their punch after six months. Most flowers add no flavor and will stay as long as the tea.
Blended with Nuts 6 months Nuts go bad quickly, that is why you often don’t find them in tea. If a tea is nut flavored, it is generally through extracts.
Puerh Generally the older the better, some of the best on the market are 20-30 years old, unlike the other tea, this one needs air to improve its flavor Puerh needs air, so if you buy it store it somewhere other than the kitchen to allow for proper air circulation without it picking up the odors from your cooking.

Your favorite antique tea tin may not provide the best tea storage solution.

Your Favorite Tea Storage Tin May Impair Freshness

Tea Storage Conditions

Tea is hygroscopic, which means it will absorb moisture and odor from the air. So it needs an air-tight container, kept away from spices, garlic, onions, and anything else that has strong odors in the kitchen. Tea should also be kept away from heat. Generally in a kitchen, when food is heated it releases steam and the tea will absorb all of it. So never store your tea near or above your oven, cook top, dishwasher, or microwave. By doing that, you are just asking to have your morning tea taste like last night’s dinner. Finally, tea is also light sensitive. Remember, the sun is used to whither the freshly plucked tea leaves. So more sun on the dried tea leaves, will just break them down faster. So its best to stay away from clear containers.

Best Tea Storage Options

Sencha Green Tea in Resealable Pouch for Optimal Tea Storage

Japanese Sencha in an Air-Tight Tea Storage Pouch to Optimize Freshness

If your tea comes in a resealable pouch that is not clear, you have the perfect container to store your tea. For those pesky tea bags in cardboard boxes, get them into a zip lock bag immediately and make sure you are using them regularly as they do not last that long. That is not to say you should not have a metal, plastic or dark glass container to store your tea, if you like those kinds of things. Just keep in mind they have seams and may not be as air-tight as most of the resealable pouches. Also, the flavor of the tea will stay with the container, especially plastic ones, so you have to be willing to constantly drink the same tea to justify having a secondary container for it. Either that or be prepared to wash it well between teas (and expect plastic to still retain the smell of the prior tea or soap used to wash it). Just remember to put your tea in a dark part of the kitchen away from heat, and not in the refrigerator, unless you have the tea in a vacuum sealed container. In closing, to keep your tea as fresh as possible, an air tight container that is dark and placed away from heat and appliances that produce heat or steam is the best solution.

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Electric Kettle Selection – Maximize Flexibility & Keep Everyone Happy

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Yellow Electric Tea Kettle

Our First Exposure to an Electric Kettle

Our recent posts have focused on the wide variety of options one could choose from in selecting the perfect teapot. In the midst of writing these posts we received a note from one of our readers (thanks Gerry) asking if we had any thoughts to share on electric kettles. So this week we are going to do just that.

Having evolved ourselves, over the years, from teapot on the stove to water boilers and electric kettles, its probably about time for this post. Our first experience with electric kettles came on a trip to France. During a stay at Les Quatre Puits (near Bordeaux), we found using an electric kettle to be so much faster and easier that we bought one right away on returning home and haven’t looked back since.

History of the Electric Kettle

Kettles have been around for thousands of years, though of course electric kettles are relatively new on the scene needing, well…. electricity. The late 1800’s saw the first electric kettle, though initial designs weren’t very efficient, nor safe, as they had no way to shut off when the water boiled or even if they boiled dry. It was Russell Hobbs which developed the first fully automatic electric kettle in 1955. The expertly named (we’re kidding) K1 proved safer and more convenient than boiling water on the stove. It was a radical new design, with a thermostat to automatically turn off the kettle upon boil, greatly reducing the chance of boiling the kettle dry and causing a fire.

Choosing an Electric Kettle

Electric kettles have come a long way since the 1950’s. They have several new safety options, are made from various materials, and some even have options to address various temperatures at which you might want to steep your tea. The following table outlines some of the common features, though a quick Amazon search for tea kettles yields well over 1,000 options so we’ve surely missed some.

Feature Our Take Comments
Primary Material Metal Preferred The jury on plastic may still be out in some minds and not in others. Seems better to be on the safe side and use something with the least amount of plastic possible. And while glass or porcelain are attractive its something else to worry about breaking.
Auto-Shutoff Mandatory This is both a safety and energy usage issue.
Boil-Dry Prevention Optional In theory this is a safety issue, but we can’t see how we would ever put an empty kettle or one with very low water on. The good news is most kettles come with this anyhow.
Cord Concealment Optional This is a safety issue, and in our house with children around this is mandatory for us. For other family situations this will be different. Similar to boil-dry prevention in that most come with this feature anyway.
Variable Temperature Strongly Desired We believe strongly that tea lovers should explore. That means not limiting yourself to one kind of tea. If you drink green, white, yellow, and some oolongs then you are going to need different water temperatures. Its either this, or get a thermometer and practice patience.
Concealed Heating Element Optional We’ve used both, and unless you are going to scrub the inside of your kettle, we aren’t sure this makes a difference. If you have hard water and have to descale appliances often, this might be an issue for you. However, if you have hard water, you would be better served looking at filtration systems.
Keep Warm Strongly Desired We can’t tell you how many times we got the water going, got distracted, and didn’t get back to the kettle right away. This is a must have if you have busy mornings.
Cordless Kettle Mandatory This is a no brainer. Having a kettle still attached to the wall is a safety issue and a major convenience/flexibility issue.
360° Swivel Optional We’ve used both, and frankly could care less either way.  The 360° swivel can be a bit of a pain to land the kettle on. The less expensive Aroma model we used for years, without a swivel base, was actually easier to land the kettle on.
Audible Beeps Strongly Desired Without the beep, we can’t go far and know the water is done. Though if your kettle has a keep warm option this is less of an issue.
Light-Up Buttons or Water Fill Level Optional For the most part this is a weak way to differentiate a product and something else to break.
In Kettle Tea Basket Optional This is more gimmick than practical for us. More parts, more things to break, and unless everyone in the house agrees to the same tea then one person gets the kettle and the other boils water another way or waits, cleans the unit, and prepares their own later.
Electric Kettles and Water Boilers

There is a wide variety of kettles up to and including full water boilers like the 4 Liter Zojirushi at left.

Just a quick note on plastic too. Most electric tea kettles today have some plastic, and while it may be BPA free that certainly doesn’t settle the debate of other chemicals leaching into the water from plastic. Like it or not, our take is that if you use a kettle there will be some contact with plastic though it may be quite small depending on model. We recently upgraded our kettle to Cuisinart CPK-17, which is primarily metal, though we’ve used an inexpensive plastic model for years. Both perform well, and neither give off flavors to the water produced. If you do end up with off flavors and you are sure its not your water then try boiling and discarding several post including a pot of white vinegar and water. If it still has off flavors then return it and don’t look back.

When it comes to our kettle upgrade, the big reason we switched to the Cuisinart CPK-17 was the ability to bring water to a specific temperature, and on-line reviews indicating it did indeed bring the water within 1-2 of the desired temp. We drink a wide variety of teas and that targeted temperature makes preparation easier.

One model that stands out is the Breville one-touch tea maker. This kettle is specifically focused on making tea and features an automated basket which is raised and lowered by the tea you are making. On the surface looks like a great solution, though it wasn’t right for us for several reasons. First, its expensive at 2 to 5 times the cost of most other kettles. Second, in our house we rarely agree on the type of tea we are going to drink on any given day so we need hot water and then we go our separate ways. If you make tea in the Breville they recommend washing the jug and basket before changing teas. That’s not going to work for us while heading off to work and juggling getting kids off to school. Finally, we are technology people (we even do some software programming), but feel that more tech equals more parts to break or things to go wrong.

All in all there are plenty of kettles at the low end of the price range. However, if you are open to exploration in the tea world then its well worth the upgrade to a model with variable temperature settings. There is such a thing as too many features, too gimmicky, and even impractical for families with multiple tea drinkers so take care before shelling out for the most expensive kettles. That said, if you want a simple, elegant kettle in touch with history, check out the beautifully simple Legacy Floral Kettle from Russell Hobbs.