De-Caffeinated Tea

Preparation Instructions:
Quantity: 3.5g/180ml
Water temp: 95°C
Brewing time: 3 mins
Process: CO₂ Decaffeination*

Butterworth and Son’s decaffeinated Orange Pekoe tea. All the flavour of a large leaf tea but without the caffeine.

*To decaffeinate using carbon dioxide (CO₂), the fresh tea leaves are softened in water and are cooked under high pressure while the gas is introduced (which as it happens, occurs naturally in trace quantities within the leaves).

At high pressures and temperatures, carbon dioxide acts as both a gas and a liquid becoming a solvent with its molecules attracting the small caffeine molecules from the tea leaves. The majority of the molecules of the various compounds which make the flavours of tea molecules (such as tannin) are larger, so they remain relatively intact, which is why this process retains the flavour of the tea the best. After several hours, the CO₂ and water is removed and the leaves are processed as normal.