The moderate caffeine intake is not possibly harmful for a majority of the healthy adults. However, regular consumption of excessive amounts of caffeine may include relatively adverse effects such as sleep deprivation, abortion, miscarriage and hypersensitivity.
The caffeine is removed from coffee or tea by means of solvent extraction. The decaffeination of tea takes place with the end-product, which has already all aroma components. The solvent extracts caffeine, but also aromatic substances. Besides this, the tea suffers from long exposition to wet and warm solvent. Therefore, the extraction step is determining the quality of the final product.
Not all caffeine is removed during decaffeination. The US industry voluntarily accepts a standard of no more than 0.4% caffeine by dry weight. These teas are labeled as decaffeinated teas and not as caffeine-free.
What is decaffeinated tea?
