How Water Soluble is Caffeine (or, do I just look gullible?)

[Genkinaonna]

So I was at a tea shop at the mall today and looking for a nice decaf black tea for my father, who is trying to cut down on his caffeine intake. The woman at the shop said that if I steeped the (caffeinated) tea in hot water for 30 seconds, then took it out and steeped in a different cup of hot water for the correct brewing time, the resulting cup of tea would have no caffeine, but I'm not buying it...has anyone heard this? Have I just missed out on some well-known fact by spending most of my time drinking coffee? Or was she just trying to make a sale?

[Wholemeal Crank]

As far as I know, the 30-second steep to decaffeinate is a myth, and does not truly decaffeinate the tea. The later cups may have less caffeine than the first one, but still have amounts noticeable to anyone who's really sensitive to caffeine.

[technophile50]

It's a myth.

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.food.drink.tea/2007-12/msg00150.html

[ScoopKW]

It was my understanding that only salted water would leech caffeine out of coffee/tea.

Welp, just wiki'd it. Turns out there are lots of ways to remove caffeine from tea. None of them sound appealing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decaffeination

[Jenni]

This doesn't answer your question, but it may help your father out a bit: You could try rooibos (red bush) tea as an alternative to black tea. It does taste different, but it can be made with milk just like black tea and it looks a similar colour (though redder, as the name suggests). It's also increasingly available these days, though I am speaking only of my experience in the UK.

[Genkinaonna]

Thanks guys! Luckily my dad is not a tea snob, so Lipton decaf it was...