Tea Comparisons

Last updated: September 2026

Decaffeination takes out more than caffeine. It also strips some of the catechins and polyphenols behind tea's antioxidant activity, because caffeine is chemically tangled up with them in the leaf. How much survives depends on the solvent or process used, and that's one reason Nepal Hills Tea has never made a decaf tea.

If you'd like to taste a naturally low-caffeine tea next to a processed one, start with the Tea Sampler Kit ($30 CAD): 10 teas of all four types from farms in Ilam and Taplejung between 5,000 and 6,000 ft, every one naturally free of bitterness. Try the Tea Sampler Kit before deciding whether decaf is really what you want.

What does decaffeination remove besides caffeine?

Decaffeination pulls caffeine out of the leaf with a solvent, carbon dioxide, or hot water, and none of these methods can grab caffeine alone. Caffeine isn't a separate ingredient sitting on top of the leaf. It's a purine alkaloid the plant makes itself, and it makes up 2.5% to 5.0% of a tea leaf's dry weight, alongside the catechins and polyphenols that give tea its astringency, colour, and much of its antioxidant activity. The plant makes caffeine through its own pathway, converting xanthosine step by step into caffeine with an enzyme called TCS1, and that pathway shares raw materials and space in the cell with the compounds behind tea's flavour and antioxidants. Pull the caffeine out with chemicals or heat and you disturb that shared chemistry. International standards even treat decaf tea as a separate category. ISO 3720:2011, the standard that defines black tea, says outright that it doesn't apply to decaffeinated black tea, and the green tea standard, ISO 11287:2011, says the same. By international definition, a decaffeinated tea is no longer measured against the same benchmark as the tea it started as.

Does decaf tea have fewer antioxidants than regular tea?

Usually, yes, though how many fewer depends on the extraction method and solvent, since they don't all behave the same way. A study that isolated theaflavins and thearubigins from black tea found that the choice of solvent alone changed the antioxidant yield significantly: an ethanol extraction of the theaflavin fraction showed 83.3% DPPH radical-scavenging activity, while a water extraction of the same fraction measured noticeably lower. That study wasn't about decaffeination; it was isolating compounds to test their antioxidant activity. But most commercial decaf methods work the same basic way: a solvent (or water, or supercritical CO2) pulls target molecules out of the leaf, and how selective it is depends on the solvent's chemistry, not on how the product is marketed. No decaffeination method removes 100% of the caffeine and nothing else. The useful question isn't whether decaf tea is healthy, but how much of what made the tea good came out with the caffeine.

Why is high-altitude tea lower in caffeine to begin with?

Because altitude changes how a tea plant grows, and slower growth at elevation is linked to measurably less caffeine in the finished leaf, without any processing. A field trial on oolong at three altitudes in China's Fenghuang Mountains found caffeine was significantly lowest in leaf from the highest site, 24.8% lower than in the same cultivar grown at the lowest altitude. On theanine, that study went against most earlier research: theanine also fell at the highest altitude in this trial, while most studies find it rises with elevation. That contradiction is worth admitting rather than smoothing over into a universal rule. What holds up is that altitude really does shape a leaf's caffeine before any processing decision is made. That's part of why our farms are high up. Farmers Tea Co. in Malate, Ilam, farms at 5,500 ft, and the slow growing season there is part of why the leaf starts out gentle, with nothing to strip out later.

What's a naturally low-caffeine alternative to decaf?

We don't sell decaf and don't plan to. Instead, our two white teas start out low in caffeine and stay that way, with no solvent, CO2, or water extraction involved. Fresh White Tea ($10 CAD/25g) comes from Farmers Tea Co., Malate, Ilam, at 5,500 ft, a certified organic farm. It makes a light, clean, slightly vegetal cup with gentle sweetness and no bitterness, at 15 to 30mg of caffeine per cup, and it's best brewed at 75°C for about 2 minutes. Floral White Tea ($10 CAD/25g), also from Farmers Tea Co.'s certified organic farm at 5,500 ft, has delicate floral and honey notes, soft sweetness, and no bitterness, and it's the lowest-caffeine tea we sell. Brew it the same way. If you want more body but still something gentle, Organic Light Green Tea ($20 CAD/50g), also from Farmers Tea Co. at 5,500 ft, has a soft spring-green sweetness and naturally low caffeine, brewed at 75 to 80°C for 2 minutes. "I don't sell decaf, and I never will," says Bhaskar Dahal, founder of Nepal Hills Tea. "If you want fewer jitters in the evening, our Fresh White Tea already gets you there. No processing, no solvent, just a leaf picked young enough that it never had much caffeine to begin with."

Black tea, green tea, and commercial decaf figures are commonly cited industry estimates and vary by brand, leaf grade, and brew strength. The white tea figure is a typical range from published measurements; actual caffeine varies with the leaf and how you brew it.

How do you brew low-caffeine white tea for the smoothest cup?

Brew our white teas gently: 75°C water (well off the boil), a 2 to 3 minute steep, and about 3g of leaf per 250ml of water. Water that's too hot pulls out more tannin than a delicate white leaf needs, and that's how bitterness creeps into any tea, white tea most of all, because it's the least processed type and has the least structure to absorb a rough brew. Use a timer for your first few cups until you find what you like, since white teas reward a light touch far more than black teas. If you're coming from a stronger daily tea and want to keep some depth while cutting caffeine, Organic Light Green Tea at 75 to 80°C for 2 minutes is a good step between a full-bodied black tea and our white teas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does decaffeinating tea remove the antioxidants too?
Yes, to some extent. Every decaffeination method (solvent, CO2, or water process) takes out some catechins and polyphenols along with the caffeine, because they share the same plant chemistry. How much is lost depends on the method and solvent, not on how the product is marketed.

What is tea actually decaffeinated with?
Commercial decaffeination usually uses a solvent (such as ethyl acetate), supercritical CO2, or a water-based process to pull caffeine out of the leaf. Each method targets caffeine with a different degree of selectivity, which is why decaf teas from different brands can taste and test so differently.

Is white tea naturally low in caffeine?
Usually, yes. Our Fresh White Tea and Floral White Tea, both grown at Farmers Tea Co. in Malate, Ilam, at 5,500 ft, typically have around 15 to 30mg of caffeine per cup, well below a typical black tea, and nothing is done to remove it.

Does high altitude affect a tea leaf's caffeine content?
Research on high-altitude oolong found measurably less caffeine at higher elevations: 24.8% less at the highest altitude than the lowest in one Fenghuang Mountain field trial. Our farms sit at 5,000 to 6,000 ft for related reasons, since slow growth at altitude shapes the leaf's chemistry before any processing happens.

Is decaf tea worth drinking if I want the health benefits?
It depends on which benefits you want and how that decaf was processed, because methods differ in how much antioxidant content survives. If you want low caffeine without any processing loss, a naturally low-caffeine tea like white tea is a more reliable place to start.

What's the lowest-caffeine tea Nepal Hills Tea sells?
Floral White Tea, at $10 CAD for 25g. It's grown on Farmers Tea Co.'s certified organic farm in Malate, Ilam, at 5,500 ft, with no bitterness and delicate floral, honey, and softly sweet notes.

Bhaskar Dahal is the founder of Nepal Hills Tea, a Canadian direct-trade specialty tea company sourcing single-origin loose-leaf teas from Ilam and Taplejung, Nepal.

Related reading:

• L-Theanine in Tea: Benefits, Effects, and How It Works
• Catechins in Tea: The Antioxidants Behind Every Cup
• Switching from Coffee to Tea: What Actually Changes?