Space Cowboy > wrote:
>I think caffeine is directly proportional to taste. It is just another
>component that makes up tea taste.

It is, it adds some bitterness to the taste. But it's only one component,
and it's one that is more soluble than most of the others.

>A weak tasting second cup means
>much less caffeine than the first. If multilple infusions hold up in
>taste then more caffeine in each cup. Most of the elements that make
>up tea taste are determined by leaching rates and not solubility.

I suspect you'll find that they are almost nearly the same thing. But
it shouldn't take much to find out. Xanthine titres are easy to do in
your kitchen without much work.

The
>CO2 processing for reducing caffeine and not affecting taste is a
>different principle than adding water to leaves and pouring off the
>first infusion and declaring the caffeine arbitrarily reduced by a
>percentage.

It certainly is, but what does that have to do with anything?
There are a bunch of other solvent methods possible as well.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."