AfternoonTea said 2010-10-17 18:14:21 -0400

Plain, Black, Decaf Tea

Hi!

I’m new here, and I’ve noticed that the issue of decaf can be a bit touchy, but I’m hoping to find some fellow tea-drinkers who also like unflavored, black decaf teas.

So, anyone out there who also enjoys a good simple cuppa of decaf?

15 Replies

Cofftea said 2010-10-17 19:23:31 -0400

Decaf black based chai is about as simple cuppa decaf black as I’ll go. Twinings has great decaf chai- and it’s bagged so it gets extra points for simple:) I’m also in love w/ Tipu’s Chai and they have a decaf concentrate… which is even more simple than steeping a bagged tea.

cody said 2010-10-17 20:00:12 -0400

I would love some, but I haven’t really found any. There are lots of times that I would like a cup of TEA at night, not rooibos or something herbal. Seems like most of the decaf I see is flavored black teas, which I’m not terribly fond of. I do have a canister of Adagio’s decaf Earl Grey, though. It’s not the best tea in the world, but it gets the job done.

AfternoonTea said 2010-10-19 18:05:58 -0400

“Seems like most of the decaf I see is flavored black teas, which I’m not terribly fond of. "

This is exactly what I seem to run into, as well. I do not like flavored tea.

VegTea said 2010-10-17 20:39:57 -0400

Most of the time I resteep my leaves from the morning in the evening. It really does decrease the amount of caffeine, although not to 0 (although other decaffeinating methods don’t get down to 0 either), and there is a lot of flavor left if you started with a decent tea. If I don’t have leaves from earlier in the day, I’ll steep the leaves once (3-5 minutes), dump the tea, and resteep in fresh water. Sometimes I can squeeze out a 3rd steep, if I didn’t let it go too long either of the first two times. You can find more info about how much caffeine is in resteeped tea here: http://www.elmwoodinn.com/about/caffeine.html

I’ve done this with Assam, Ceylon, flowery orange pekoe and Darjeeling, to name a few, with great results. Any caffeine that remains isn’t enough to bother me.

cody said 2010-10-19 12:05:45 -0400

I’ve tried that, but it still contains too much caffeine for me. I can occasionally get anxiety-like symptoms from caffeine, and actually went years without it. I try to keep it early in the day with plenty of food… and, trying this method at night didn’t go so well for me.

Would probably be fine for people less sensitive to caffeine, though. And thanks for the link!

AfternoonTea said 2010-10-17 20:53:26 -0400

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

My drink of choice is actually water, but tea is about the only other thing I drink. I think my preference for water is actually the reason I don’t like flavored teas of any sort——I just like really plain beverages.

I like English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, orange pekoe, Ceylon, and Assam. Anything dark, plain & fairly strong, so it can stand up to adding milk & sugar.

I know I’m not the typical Steepster tea connoisseur, but I’m happy to be among fellow tea lovers!

Cofftea said 2010-10-17 22:12:54 -0400

Blech. Can’t stand water. Actually suffered from chronic dehydration til I found my love for tea. :)

AfternoonTea said 2010-10-17 22:15:25 -0400

Oh dear, Cofftea! Thank goodness you found tea!

Cofftea said 2010-10-17 22:22:05 -0400

Yep one of my life mottos is to be selective about what I take part in so I don’t waste blessings of any kind (time, money, flavor, calories, etc). So since I have no motivation to drink something that has 0 flavor, I needed to find my water consumption in another way.

AfternoonTea said 2010-10-17 22:28:24 -0400

It’s funny, because if you primarily drink water, you realize just how much flavor it actually has. It then becomes difficult to always be able to find water that you like.

I’m glad you found tea. What are your favorite types of teas?

Cofftea said 2010-10-17 22:48:21 -0400

Haha almost literally everything but plain black tea lol. In order:
Matcha (both flavored and unflavored)
Other Japanese greens (the only exceptions are ho ji cha & Gen mai cha)
Black based chais
Black based dessert flavored teas
Green oolongs
Unflavored whites
Flavored whites
Chinese greens (unflavored
Sheng Pu Erh
Green based chais
Darker oolongs that aren’t roasted (roasty teas don’t even make my list)
flavored greens
Flavored oolongs
Non chai, non dessert flavored blacks (there are some exceptions- like I LOVE ManTeas’ Beer Tea)
Shu Pu Erhs (don’t really like them, but I think I like Amber Shu’s best)

AfternoonTea said 2010-10-18 01:42:29 -0400

LOL! Everything except plain black tea is right!!

That gives you sooooo many choices! There would be so many options for you to try——it would be almost endless. How fun!

Cofftea said 2010-10-18 11:55:48 -0400

It does give me so many options to try- and it is almost endless:)

teabird said 2010-10-18 16:04:12 -0400

I like plain black tea, I’d love to be able to have it at night, but I haven’t found any decaf ones I really like :( Like VegTea, I sometimes resteep a plain black in the evening to make my own decaf-ish version.

I take it you’d recommend PG Tips Decaf, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for that one!

AfternoonTea said 2010-10-18 17:54:04 -0400

I do like PG Tips Decaf. It’s a simple, plain decaf. (It’s not at all fancy, though.)