Anyone feeling sleepy? (Tetley Naturally Decaffeinated)

Member Name: tartlette

Product:	Tetley Naturally Decaffeinated
Date:	17/03/06 (754 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taste, no caffine

Disadvantages: Slightly more expensive.

For as long as I could remember I had been given a cup of tea just before I went to bed. It was comforting to have a steaming hot mug of tea before I dozed off...except that I didn't doze off, but stayed awake for hours on end. This reached its peak when I was about 16, on the verge of my GCSEs. Every night I was awake until 2 or 3 in the morning (which didn't make for a very pretty sight the next day in school!!) It was driving me mad. I put it down to stress, but in reality I'd always had trouble getting to sleep and really envied those who could sleep within seconds of their head hitting the pillow (they always tend to be the ones who snore the loudest, why is that?!). Then I had a breakthrough. I read an article in a newspaper about insomnia and it said that for some people caffine after about 4 in the afternoon can lead to sleepless nights. Why wasn't I told this before!! I gave up the tea and slept like a baby for the next 3 years.

Then, whilst in university my flatmate offered to make me a cup of tea. 'No no' I said 'can't you see how late it is!'. 'But this is decaf' she said. Well I was skeptical. I thought it couldn't possibly work. When she made me a cup I sipped it tentatively, fearing a sleepless night ahead, but I was pleasantly surprised when I went straight to sleep. A minor miracle (for me anyway) to have had tea and still sleep. I could now go back to the comforting cup before bedtime and still wake up feeling refreshed. Wonderful. Here's a little about the tea itself.

PACKAGING AND PRICE:

The tea comes in a box and not a softpack like the regular tea. It looks similar to normal Tetley packaging, apart from the fact that it is predominantly white. They cost £3.07 for 160, £1.54 for 80 and 98p for 40. The regular bags cost £2.67 for 160, so the decaf are more expensive. (All prices from Tesco).

TASTE:

They say that the tea is decaffeinated to 0.2%, so the remaining caffine is so small that it doesn't affect you. It also contains antioxidents which are good for you, so that's another bonus!

When I first tried the bags I found them a little weak. However, now I drink nothing but decaf and find that I can't drink the regular unless I put loads of milk in, as I find it too strong. I really like the taste of the decaf now. If you like milky tea or like tea that hasn't been brewed for too long then you'll probably like the decaf. Of course you can brew the decaf for longer to make it taste stronger.

As to the taste of Tetley compared to others, well I don't think there's that much difference. I prefer it to PG Tips but I drink a lot of Tesco own brand decaf and find that this is just as good as Tetley and is cheaper as well.

There seems to be a complicated chemical process to remove the caffine but to be honest I don't mind how they do it. I love the fact that I can now drink tea all day and it won't keep me up all night!

Summary: Yummy tea with no headache