Decaffeination... the Organic Way

Some people avoid decaffeinated tea because of all the chemicals used to strip the caffeine from the leaves. Then they discover Clipper decaffeinated tea, jump for joy and rush to put the kettle on!

That’s because here at Clipper we would never dream of using anything other than natural decaffeination. ‘But how can that work?’ We hear you ask. Well, we thought you might be interested to understand how organic decaffeination works and what makes it so special.

Before we explain organic decaffeination, we thought we’d say a quick word about the other option.

Some other tea makers use chemical solvents such as methylene chloride and ethyl acetate to strip the caffeine from their teas. Ethyl acetate works well in nail polish remover but let’s just say it’s not very Clipper.

What’s more, chemical solvents remove the caffeine, but they can leave behind a chemical residue. That’s why we use the natural CO2 decaffeination method instead.

Our decaf process uses carbon dioxide, a completely natural resource, found in the air we breathe. It’s also the gas that gives sparkling water its bubbles.

The CO2 method of decaffeination is far better for the environment than using chemical solvents and it doesn’t leave any chemical residues; just lovely, fresh tasting tea.

This is how we do things here at Clipper:

1. The tea leaves are moistened with water and placed under pressure.
2. Streams of pressurised and heated CO2 are passed through the tea leaves, where it bonds with the caffeine molecules while leaving the tea leaves otherwise intact. Clever!
3. After passing through the tea leaves, the caffeine-laden CO2 is filtered to remove the caffeine and then recycled for further use in decaffeination.
4. Finally, the newly-decaffeinated but still delicious tea leaves are dried and packed.

The Soil Association, who certainly know a thing or two about these things, approves CO2 decaffeination for use in organic products. That’s because it’s the most natural way to remove the caffeine. At Clipper, we’re proud to say that we only ever use CO2 for all our decaf teas and our coffees, too.

Yes, removing the caffeine even with just CO2 can take away some of the flavour. That’s why we compensate by using the best quality premium teas for our Everyday Decaf, which is packed full of tea from Assam.

Assam tea delivers a big, full−flavour, even after it’s been decaffeinated. So you see we can be decaf and still be delicious.

We’re extremely proud of our tasty, organic, decaffeinated teas and we think you might enjoy them, too. Why not check out our decaf black and green teas which are available to order from our online shop?