Decaffeinated with Natural Water Method
EGCG antioxidants remain in green tea leaves when they are decaffeinated using the patented natural water method. With the patented water method, Edible Green® Decaffeinated sencha green tea powder contains 14.03% of Catechins.
Translated from “Report on Decaffeination Process of Green Tea”
By Yuichi Yamaguchi
Labor-saving Tea Production Research Team
The National Agriculture and Research Organization, Japan.
The basic fact behind the natural decaffeination process of green tea: Caffeine is more easily and quickly eluted with hot water than EGCG, the most prominent antioxidant. Many of the beneficial effects of green tea are related to its catechins, especially, EGCG.
According to the study done by Tsushida, when raw green tea leaves and steamed green tea leaves are soaked in hot water of 176 degrees Fahrenheit, 70% of caffeine after 1 minute and 80% after 3 minutes were eluted from both types of tea leaves. However, little amount of caffeine was eluted when the water temperature was 140 degree Fahrenheit. The results show decaffeination efficiency largely depends on the water temperature.
Elution amount of EGCG is much less compared to Caffeine. When green tea leaves were steeped in hot water of 176 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 minutes and 80% of the caffeine was removed, only 4.1% of EGCG was eluted and 95.8% of EGCG remained in tea leaves.
The results show Caffeine can be removed selectively from both raw and steamed green tea leaves.
You may be interested in Is our Decaf Green Tea Powder Organic?
(“Journal of Agriculture and Chemistry Society” 59, 1985)
Edible Green® Decaf has more Catechins than Matcha!
| Product | Catechin amount | Ratio |
| *Matcha | 10.95% | 1 |
| Edible Green® Decaffeinated | 14.03% | 1.28 |
| *Sencha green tea powder (Edible Green® regular) | 15.55% | 1.42 |
*Source: “Simultaneous analysis of individual catechins and caffeine in green tea” by Tetsuhisa Goto, Yuko Yoshida, Masaaki Kiso, Hitoshi Nagashima Journal of Chromatography A, 749 (1996) 295-299 National Food Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Note: Matcha and Edible Green tea are natural food and the actual amount of Catechins may vary.
