Terminology Related to "Caffeine"

In today's world, if things are natural, organic, free-trade, eco-friendly, or green, they will sell better. So, green tea has a natural advantage, having the word "green" in there already. But I stumbled across something interesting in marketing a product.

It was late at night and I was craving green tea. I knew that I didn't want caffeine, so I looked around to see if we had any decaf green tea. I know that the decaffeination process is usually done with chemicals that wash the caffeine out, and that it would not be an incredibly healthy option, but I also did not want to be up at 4 am, trying to fall asleep. I found a few bags of green tea in the tea caddy which were labeled, "Naturally Decaffeinated Green Tea."

This seems to have the connotation that the green tea somehow grew without caffeine, which I know is not the case. So, I did a little google searching and it jogged my memory. "Caffeine Free" tea is tea which grows without caffeine. Usually this is sold as tea but is technically an herbal infusion, since "tea" refers to a specific plant having a latin name. The term "decaffeinated" means that the caffeine has in some way been removed.

So what does "naturally decaffeinated" mean? Ethyl acetate is a chemical found in many fruits and in tea leaves in small quantities. In large quantities, ethyl acetate is used as the solvent to extract caffeine. Because it is found naturally in some foods, it is considered a "natural" solvent. However in such large quantities as are used to extract the caffeine, there is nothing natural about ethyl acetate.

The process of extracting the caffeine often destroys some of the healthful benefits of green tea, such as antioxidants or the beneficial vitamins. Ethyl acetate is also reported to cause liver damage, and respiratory and nervous system damage.

Please keep in mind that a Google search will turn up many results of varying reputability. Your best bet for authentic research is to go straight to the source- medical or nutrition journals, reports published by the USDA or other government agencies, or even college research theses. My particular source was a secondary source at a website for all things related to green tea:
http://www.amazing-green-tea.com/decaffeinated-green-tea.html

So what was the final verdict? Green tea only has 1/4 of the caffeine of a cup of coffee, so I decided simply to have a little caffeine that night. And I didn't have any trouble falling asleep. Check this blog tomorrow for the review of that tea!