A full bodied tea with a cup tending bright, being consistent with high quality tea. A traditional cup of tea without the traditional caffeine. This German decaf high pressure CO2 process can remove the caffeine from tea without damaging the leaf and flavour.
From the Producer:
We thoroughly scrutinize our decaffeinated teas to ensure that they stand up to Canadian Quality specifications. All of our decafs are processed using the Co2 Process. The advantage of this decaffeination process is that no chemical solvents are used to remove the caffeine. Also, using the naturally occurring Co2 in a circulation process which carefully uses high pressure and temperature to extract the caffeine, the origin distinct character of the tea is retained in the cup. There is a slight change in the character of the tea due to the process but the end result is an uncompromising cup of tea with no chemical overtones.
We use high grown Ceylon tea as the base for decaf tea for several reasons: High grown Ceylon gives us the character we are looking for - a flavoury and satisfying tea. The high grown estates are visited by us on a yearly basis to confirm that they undertake proper manufacturing techniques, keep plucking standards high, and reinvest in the estate and its personnel. Most importantly, high grown Ceylons retain their character under Co2 decaffeination processes much better than other teas we have tested.
Typically quality of the tea is judged by hundreds of the tea tasters around the world. On a weekly basis raucous lively auctions are held in various producing countries where world prices are set. Tasters are looking for similar characteristics, so in the matter of a few seconds the value of the tea is established according to supply and demand functions and quality gradients.