How tea decaffeination started

Dr. Theodor Grethe and tea decaffeination

Dr. Theodor Grethe, a German chemist, is considered one of the early pioneers of tea decaffeination. He developed the first practical method for decaffeinating tea around the year 1923.Dr. Grethe worked on a gentle extraction process in which the caffeine was removed with solvents without significantly affecting the aroma of the tea. His work was based on earlier developments in coffee decaffeination, as described above. He successfully transferred the coffee decaffeination technique to tea. Dr. Grethe began commercially selling his decaffeinated tea in the mid-1920s (around 1924–1925) in Germany. The commercial launch took place in Bremen, which at the time was one of Europe’s most important tea import and trading centers. From there, the product was distributed within Germany and to other European markets through established tea trade networks.It was not possible to determine exactly when Dr. Grethe began to sell decaffeinated tea in Switzerland. The advertisements in Swiss daily newspapers below show, that Infré tea was definitely available for purchase in Switzerland in 1939: