Decaf Tea and Coffee: Is it good for you?
As a strong believer that we don't all need caffeine as much as we think we do, I have found that the placebo effect is real. For me personally, it's not the caffeine I crave in the morning, it's just the aroma of coffee, the hot beverage, and the way it soothes me first thing in the morning. Whether it's caffeinated or decaf, it doesn't make too much of a difference for me. The only thing I do notice is that if I have 2 to 3 cups of caffeine, I start to get jittery and anxious, but not necessarily more valuable energy.
With that said, since I was drinking so much decaf coffee, I decided to look into how it's made, and it's not always pretty. Coffee beans are soaked in either hot water along with ethyl acetate, methylene chloride, or activated carbon, or they're steamed and rinsed with those same solvents. These chemicals literally dissolve the caffeine that is naturally occurring in the beans, leaving us with decaffeinated beans.
But what about when it says "naturally decaffeinated"? Well, the term "natural" holds no standard in anything food or beauty. It's just a marketing trick. Basically, ethyl acetate is considered "natural" since it occurs in fruits and veggies. So the non-natural process of rinsing beans with ethyl acetate is allowed to be called "naturally caffeine-free" post-processing.
The same thing goes for decaf tea. Ethyl acetate is used to remove the caffeine in tea leaves. They are soaked in water and rinsed/dried to create new (almost) completely caffeine-free tea leaves. According to the FDA, the solvents used to make decaf tea/coffee are limited to an amount that is harmless to consume. However, think about this: if something has to be regulated so that we don't over consume, it can't be good for us. And who's to say how much you're consuming? The health benefits are not worth the risk, in my opinion.
There are clean ways to decaffeinate tea and coffee, though. The Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Tea Decaffeination Method maintains the flavor and health benefits of the tea despite removing the caffeine. In this process, tea leaves are placed with naturally occurring CO2 at high pressure and temperature, which liquifies the CO2. The caffeine molecules bind to this liquid CO2 and are removed from the tea. The flavor remains unchanged because flavor molecules are larger than caffeine molecules, so they don't bind the same way. This is a win!
The Swiss Water Method is more commonly used for coffee (this is the only decaf coffee I drink). It dissolves the caffeine by soaking coffee beans in hot water. Unfortunately, this doesn't work as well with tea leaves, and many brands avoid this method because it can make the tea too watery. So the winner for tea is the CO2 Method. Here are some tea brands I found that use CO2 Decaffeination: Arbor Teas, Tattle Tea, and Choice Organics.
If you want a tea that is naturally lower in caffeine, such as white tea, is a great option. Or, if you want a tea that is actually naturally caffeine-free, then choose herbal teas. These are tea leaves that never contained caffeine to begin with, thus no chemical process was involved to alter the leaves.
For coffee, there are some great decaf options that utilize the Swiss Water Method, such as Allegro Coffee Organic Espresso Medium Roast, No Fun Jo Organic Medium Roast, and Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC Organic Medium Roast (Fair Trade).
When I'm out and I order decaf coffee, I usually assume that it has been decaffeinated using a chemical solvent. However, sometimes we have to accept that we can't control everything. My approach is to focus on what I can control, such as choosing clean decaf options for my home and kitchen, and doing the best I can in other situations.
To sum up, decaf tea can be bad for you because most brands use chemical solvents in their decaffeination process. But the good news is that there are cleaner methods of decaffeination available, which means that you don't have to give up your favorite beverage. By choosing brands that use methods such as CO2 or Swiss Water, you can still enjoy your tea or coffee without exposing yourself to harmful chemicals.