DECAFFE TEA

Caffeine is loosely bound in tea. It dissolves in the water very quickly.
Hence its the first thing that comes out when the tea is steeped in hot water.

Caffeine

Popular belief will tell you,
To make decaffe teas -
"_put the tea bag or loose tea in a pot and pour the hot water
- Wait for 30 seconds or a minute, then pour the water out.
-Then use the same tea bag or leaf in the cup to make the tea ".

But that's not correct !

It takes about 5 minutes brewing to remove as much as 30% of caffeine.
If that tea is discarded and the same leaves used to brew for second time for 5 minutes -
the 'second Brew' will have 60 - 65% caffeine.

If you have the patience to do a third brew with the same leaves -
the caffeine content will be about 30% of the original tea.

But still that's not "Decaffeinated" Tea, for tea to be considered decaffeinated,
more than 90% of caffeine should be removed.
That level of decaffeination could only be achieved in industrial processing,
Where 95 - 98% of caffeine is removed

Note - Decaffe teas, after all, may not be that healthy !

To Quote a recent research - August 2005
The Department of Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, at Rutgers studied the effects of tea, decaffeinated tea, and caffeine on UVB light-induced complete carcinogenesis in SKH-1 mice: demonstration of caffeine as a biologically important constituent of tea(1).

They found oral administration of green or black tea inhibited UVB light-induced complete carcinogenesis in the skin of SKH-1 mice(1). Green tea was a more effective inhibitor than black tea. Oral administration of decaffeinated green or black tea resulted in substantially less inhibitory activity than did administration of the regular teas, and in one experiment, administration of a high-dose level of the decaffeinated teas enhanced the tumorigenic effect of UVB. Oral administration of caffeine alone had a substantial inhibitory effect on UVB-induced carcinogenesis, and adding caffeine to the decaffeinated teas restored the inhibitory effects of these teas on UVB-induced carcinogenesis. In additional studies, topical application of a green tea polyphenol fraction after each UVB application inhibited UVB-induced tumorigenesis.

The results indicate that caffeine contributes in an important way to the inhibitory effects of green and black tea on UVB-induced complete carcinogenesis.