Wife is a big tea drinker but the caffeine is playing with her anxiety so we’re going de-caff.
Any recommendations as to what is drinkable? Ideally something a large supermarket may stock?
As a start point, the box I bought from Aldi was terrible!
It generally is terrible.
I prefer roibos ober decaf tea.
Generally awful, but the Decaf Yorkshire seems the best.
Aldi scottish stuff is fine, tastes zero difference to standard tea.
I use Tetley decaf after 3pm. It’s ok but needs to brew a bit longer or tastes a bit “thin”.
I drink Yorkshire and find that if you leave the bag in longer than you would normally it tastes alright. Not as nice as regular tea but similar enough that I don't mind drinking it.
i suffer the same with the effects that caffeine has with my anxiety.
i drink these with milk or sometimes the twinings ones. give them a try! Stop drinking caffeine, my anxiety was killing me for years before i found out about the effects that caffeine has and i used to like my coffee strong too! good luck to her 🙂
https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-the-best-100-chai-tea-bags-392953011
Can't say that I can tell the difference between normal and decaf twinings earl grey - apart from the price.
Yorkshire Decaf is ok. Better than a lot of real teas. Wife has Ringtons decaf delivered - thast actually pretty good.
Tick Tock red or green bush / rooibos is good. I can toelrate the red stuff with milk, although a lot of people can't. I thought the Aldi Decaf was horrible too, had a nasty chemical aftertaste.
I suspect there's a bit of confirmation bias going on, as Aldi or Lidl decafs just taste like normal tea when brewed in a pot (we've tried them blind).
Certainly more pleasant that Rooibos to my palette.
But Tesco do a reasonably priced Earl Grey Decaf, which is very nice, and PG decaf was decent too.
Mrs BC is really quite happy with either PG or Tetley. As I don't drink tea I have no clue whether they actually taste any good or not.
I dont like Yorkshire tea anyway (try it blind, the gold is nice though). Most of the time we just get supermarket stuff and TBH its between inoffensive and unnoticeable. You can taste that there's no caffeine but thats about it, as others suggest brew it a bit longer to make up for that with tannins.
Redbush is a different taste entirely, I like it but the OH doesnt and I CBA having a 4th pot of tea bags on the go!
Yorkshire tea for us.
The clipper stuff is good too, but more expensive I think.
Yorkshire Tea or Twinings de-caf both pretty good.
Tetley is OK if you let it brew long enough (seems to take ages), although normal Tetley tea doesn't taste as good to me as other teas....
It generally is terrible.
I prefer roibos ober decaf tea.
+1
Tried roobois over 20 years ago and is still my first choice when faced with choice. I don’t dislike black tea at all, I just prefer redbush nowadays. Tick Tock brand. I like their earl grey redbush a lot too, so generally keep a box of each as a luxury.
Brewteacompany do some nice decaff, do some nice other teas as well.
+1 for the PG Tips decaf - best of an uninspiring bunch imo.
Yorkshire decaff tea is good. We once had a painter in the house who was whinging that his wife forced him to drink decaff tea and it was nowhere near as good as real tea like the mug we were giving him. We decided not to break the news.
I used to drink Tick Tock Redbush/Rooibos a lot. Keep meaning to get some more. The taste takes a little getting used to but it's nice.
Also, it's naturally caffeine free. I seem to remember reading (but it might have been in a dream/nightmare) that the chemicals used to decaffeinate things aren't particularly good for you ??
Tried roobois over 20 years ago and is still my first choice when faced with choice
Remember when it cost peanuts (relatively, not taking inflation into account)? Then people jumped on the bandwagon; prices since have risen considerably.
I'm not saying it's expensive as such, just that it's now fashionable and priced accordingly.
We drink Sainsburys or Twinings Decaff Earl Grey, both very nice and hard to tell from the full fat version.
+1 for Yorkshire for same reasons +palpitations
Yorkshire tea drinkers here as well, normal in the day, decaff at night.
Tried roobois over 20 years ago and is still my first choice when faced with choice
Remember when it cost peanuts (relatively, not taking inflation into account)? Then people jumped on the bandwagon; prices since have risen considerably.
I’m not saying it’s expensive as such, just that it’s now fashionable and priced accordingly.
It’s not so bad depending, where you shop/what brand. ie Tetley’s Redbush 40s (£1.50) are 10p more than Tetley’s black tea 40s (£1.40) - but buying bulk (ie 160 bags at a time) you always pay a lot more for redbush vs black tea.
How do you feel about Methylene Chloride?
There's other options which don't use the solvent method.
Do you trust Trust me I'm a doctor? He says "the level of solvent remaining after the process is over is vanishingly small, and below the level deemed safe by European regulations...
...Our advice is that if you do choose decaf, let your taste buds be your guide and don’t worry too much about how it was made."
I thought that red bush scoobydoo stuff was rank TBH. If I was going for decaf tea I'd get lemon tea or similar.
I've got a "Tesco lemon & ginger infusion" on the go at the moment and it's rather pleasant.
Yorkshire tea.
No more needs to be said.
Clipper decaf is good. Bit pricey though.
https://www.clipper-teas.com/product/organic-everyday-decaf-tea/
My Mrs likes the M&S stuff.
Update.
Tried Yorkshire, looked good in the cup, right colour and smell but lacked some taste. Miles better than Aldi, but not quite as good as...
Twinnings. Tasted not a million miles from proper tea, good colour too. We'll be sticking with this for the moment.
Thanks for the update, this is an issue close to my heart for many the same reasons as your wife.
It was a surprise to me when I read it but Matthew Walker in his famed sleep book claims that most decaf teas contain as much as half of the caffeine that is in a normal cup and that because this is not widely known they are often a misplaced or inneffective solution.
In the last six months or so and not because of lockdown, I have tried valarian tea and also mint tea at night which helps with the wind down and improves the duration and quality of my sleep.
Decaf Yorkshire Tea is vile. Stains the cup a weird orange colour too.
Best I've had has been the generic Sainsburys own brand. Looks like normal tea, tastes like normal tea, makes me pee like normal tea, but doesn't stop me sleeping.
We've recently been on Tesco Organic decaf and it's one of my favorites that hasn't come up in the thread yet. Clipper is good but expensive. I'm not a fan of PG decaf and although we've drunk Yorkshire full-caf almost exclusively for years, their decaf is also lacking a little.
Missed the thread first time around - but I was shopping for de-caff tea a while ago due to sleep problems. I couldn't believe the price of some of the branded de-caffs! I wasn't prepared to spend £4 on stuff I likely wouldn't use, so bought the cheapest - Asda's own brand. It's fine. Quite tea-tasting, bit weaker and a slightly sweeter taste than my usual, but I've nearly used them all and I think I bought them about 2 years ago 😆
Just checked: Best before March 2020. 🙂