Our product and our expertise

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water and is drunk both for its flavour and for its numerous health-promoting properties.

Many also appreciate the stimulating effect of the caffeine contained in tea. Black and green tea contain between 2 and 4 per cent caffeine, a substance that increases alertness and reduces fatigue, but can also cause nervousness, insomnia or palpitations if consumed in excess.

Unlike in coffee, the caffeine molecule in tea is not free, but forms a complex together with the tannins. This complex must be dissolved in the human intestine before the caffeine enters the bloodstream and unfolds its effect. This process takes around three to four hours. In contrast, caffeine is already absorbed into the bloodstream from the human stomach when drinking coffee, as a result, its effect unfolds more quickly and intensively but is also less long-lasting. This is why the caffeine in tea has a delayed but longer-lasting effect compared to the caffeine in coffee.

Studies show that of the many ingredients in tea, caffeine alone can have potentially negative effects on health.

More and more people want to avoid caffeine completely or at least at certain times of the day. Decaffeinated tea allows them to continue to enjoy the benefits of tea at any time of the day.

After our decaffeination process, the caffeine content in the tea is reduced by over 90% to less than 0.2%.

Our gently decaffeinated tea allows our customers to enjoy the many health-promoting benefits of black and green tea. These include:

• Supports the immune system: Tea supports the immune system with its vitamins and antibacterial properties, these strengthen the body's defences and can inhibit the growth of pathogens.

• Antioxidants such as polyphenols, especially theaflavins and thearubigins, reduce cell damage caused by oxidation and lower the risk of chronic diseases.

• Promotes the cardiovascular system: Black tea improves blood lipid levels and has an anti-inflammatory effect.

• Flavonoids in black tea dilate the blood vessels and promote blood circulation.

Another key benefit of decaffeinated tea is the effect of L-theanine, an amino acid that both promotes relaxation and increases concentration. L-theanine stimulates the alpha brain waves, which ensure a state of relaxed alertness. This reduces stress levels without causing fatigue, while improving mental clarity. Without the stimulating effect of caffeine, L-theanine can unfold its full potential – for a calmer focus in everyday life.

Our process preserves all the positive aspects of tea – for a harmonious combination of enjoyment and health. This means that tea lovers can enjoy all the health benefits of our decaffeinated tea without any loss of quality.

Our decaffeination process is fully automated and takes place in an extraction plant specially designed for tea. Since our company was founded, almost 80 years ago, we have been using methylene chloride, a solvent used particularly within the food and pharmaceutical industries. Over the years, we have continuously developed this process to make the extraction of caffeine as gentle as possible while preserving the quality and valuable ingredients of the tea.
Our extraction offers numerous advantages: it retains the original flavour of the tea, minimises product loss and allows the extracted caffeine to be recovered. Our process selectively removes the caffeine and preserves the valuable ingredients such as polyphenols, L-theanine and minerals.

With our customers we set the required standards. Infré manages the whole supply chain, tea selection, logistics, warehousing and blending. The teas are sourced as per Infré’s customer’s specification, including the required certification. By doing so Infré can deliver a consistent quality to its customers over the long-term.

As a production company without its own brands (other than the ‘Infré Tee’ brand in Switzerland), we rely on close, long-term partnerships that enable us to support our customers in successfully establishing their decaffeinated tea brands in their respective markets.

One example of the success of this approach is the British black tea market: whilst this market has been in decline for over 30 years, the decaffeinated tea segment has been growing continuously. In this period the market volume for decaffeinated tea has grown to almost ten million kilos. We owe this not least to the high quality of our products, which makes it possible for consumers to perceive no difference between normal and decaffeinated tea.

Our experienced team of specialised tea buyers has more than 80 years of combined experience. We source our teas worldwide, but mainly from East Africa, either directly from producers or via the weekly auctions in Mombasa, Kenya.

We work together with leading transport companies, both for sea and road transport, and can therefore offer our customers customised and cost-efficient solutions for all logistics requirements.

Our warehouse in Semsales has a capacity of up to 2 million kilos of tea. We always maintain a minimum stock of more than one million kilos of original teas to ensure that we have the right teas available to meet our customers’ requirements at any given time. We also co-operate with logistics partners who provide additional storage capacity. This close cooperation enables us to offer flexible solutions that are customised to our customers’ needs.

Tasting is an essential part of our overall process and ensures the highest quality of tea at every stage – from sourcing to blending and decaffeination. We taste the tea during the selection process and before despatch. After delivery to our factory, samples are taken and tasted again as part of the quality control process. The teas are also carefully tasted during the creation of customised blends to ensure that they meet the specific requirements of our customers. Finally, after decaffeination, each individual production unit is checked by tasting. This consistent quality control with a focus on tasting at every stage of the process guarantees that we always offer our customers a product of the highest quality.

Our in-house laboratory is an integral part of our production and quality control processes. Here we utilise state-of-the-art technology to ensure that our teas meet the highest standards. Each batch is precisely analysed for caffeine content using HPLC technology to ensure accurate results. The residual levels of the solvents used in the decaffeination process are carefully analysed using gas chromatography. A detailed quality analysis is prepared for all teas decaffeinated by us. This provides information on the caffeine content, residual solvent value, moisture, volume and fines content for each big bag.

In addition to product quality, our laboratory also monitors the air and wastewater quality of our production plant to ensure continuous compliance with the applicable Swiss environmental standards.  

The natural caffeine that we extract from the tea leaves has a purity of 95 % and higher and is further refined by the purchasers of the raw caffeine. It is used in the beverage, food supplement and pharmaceutical industries.

Infré SA has the following certifications:

• BRCGS AA+

• ISO 9001:2015

• Rainforest Alliance Certification

• Kosher certification