About Decaf Coffee

June 2011: "The Growing Decaf Market" in Coffee Talk. Click here to read.

Mar/Apr. 2011: "Deconstructing Decaf" article in Roast Magazine. Click here to read.

Mar. 10, 2010: GREAT article in the New York Times. Click here to read.

There are at least 4 decaffeination processes for coffee.

1. Water Process – there are two “water processes”. Both are all natural and certified organic. The Swiss Water Process is done in Vancouver, BC, Canada and the “Mountain Water Process” is in Veracruz, Mexico. Both use water to remove the caffeine and all the flavor particles from the coffee bean and into a “slurry”. The caffeine is removed from the slurry and the flavor particles are returned to the bean. The extracted caffeine cannot be re-sold and the process takes longer than the “traditional”, both of which explain why this process is more expensive than the “traditional" or "precision” method.

2. Traditional or Precision process – about seven plants in the world use a process that uses methylene chloride to extract the caffeine molecules from coffee. This process achieves decaffeination with minimal disturbance to the flavor particles and other structures of the bean. It can also be done at lower temperatures, which preserves bean quality. FDA requires residues to be below 10 ppm in the green bean (i.e. before it is roasted). In practice, the concentration is almost always < 1ppm, in other words 1/10 the “safe” level. The extracted caffeine can be re-sold to companies that use it, like soft drinks and pharmaceutical companies, which keeps the cost of decaffeination down.

3. CO2 process – uses “super critical” CO2, in other words CO2 gas compressed to its liquid state. The CO2 solvent extracts only the caffeine from the beans, none of the flavor particles. A costly process, because the equipment is expensive. The process takes longer than with the “traditional” process, but is faster than the non-pressurized water processes, but still certified organic.

4. Ethyl Acetate process – sometimes called “naturally decaffeinated”, because ethyl acetate is found naturally in fruits and it is a common food additive. Uses the same mechanical process as the “traditional” method, but uses ethyl acetate instead. FDA requires residues to be below 10 ppm in the green bean (i.e. before it is roasted). In practice, the concentration is almost always < 1ppm, in other words 1/10 the “safe” level. The extracted caffeine can be re-sold to companies that use it, like soft drinks and pharmaceutical companies, which keeps the cost of decaffeination down.
 

Which Decaf Process is Best?

There is much debate about which decaffeination process is best and one fact on which everyone agrees – if you start with low quality, poorly sorted, or old coffee beans, no matter what process you use, the result will be bad-tasting coffee. (See “What does it take..” below.)

If you want an organically certified, 100% natural process, either of the “water process” coffees or the CO2 process will be needed. “Water process” coffees are easier to find. While the water process is more expensive than the traditional process, the CO2 process is so prohibitively expensive, few use it today.

If your first criteria is coffee taste, not organic certification, either the “traditional/precision” process or the “ethyl acetate” process will probably most consistently give you the flavors of the original coffee. There is so much traditional decaf coffee out there, though, it is difficult to pick out which companies have chosen high quality beans to go into the decaf process. Many big coffee companies intentionally throw their worst beans into the decaf truckloads.
 

What does it take to create a great-tasting decaf coffee?
 

• Start with the very best beans. Transparency of the supply chain is one indicator that care and quality beans have been used. Ask your barista/roaster/importer if they can tell you the country of origin of your decaf coffee. If they give you a blank stare, look at the bag and shrug their shoulders, it’s not a good sign.
• Use a reputable decaffeination process – most of them are. While some have enough marketing muscle to imply the other processes are trying to kill you, that is not the case.
• Storage after decaffeination must be air-tight and limited.
• Talented and timely roasting. Roasting should be within 2 weeks of brewing and there is a craft to roasting great decaf beans. Generally roasters say decaf is trickier than roasting regular beans. Industrial roasters 10 states away are less likely to be giving the care and freshness required.
• Grind the beans just before brewing.
• Don’t let the brewed coffee sit. Remove from a hot burner within a couple minutes. Transfer to a thermal carafe.
 

DECAF – Did you know?

How do regulators define “decaffeinated”?

US guidelines:	Final product must be 99.95% caffeine free. (0.051% residual caffeine by weight.)
International guidelines:	Final product must be 99.90% caffeine free. (0.10% residual caffeine by weight.)

The “best” coffees (Arabica beans) have lower caffeine. Ever wonder why cheap coffee gives you a headache?

Caffeine Content
By Agricultural Product	Caffeine (% by dry weight)
Arabica coffee beans	1.2%
Robusta coffee beans	2.2%

How much caffeine is in a “regular” cup?

• Regular:60-180 mg caffeine
• Decaf: 2 – 5 mg caffeine

Did you know a 1oz. espresso has less caffeine than an 8oz cup of coffee?

Common Beverages Caffeine Content (mg)

8oz coffee drip brewed	65-120
8oz coffee instant	60-85
8oz decaf instant	1-4
8oz decaf drip brewed	2-4
1oz espresso	30-50
1oz decaf espresso	2-4
8oz Tea (instant)	12-28
8oz Coca-Cola	46

Did you know…?

• Decaffeination typically happens outside the U.S.? There are decaf plants in Houston, TX and New Orleans, LA, but the other 10 or so are all elsewhere in the world – Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Colombia. Most of the decaf coffee in N. America is decaffeinated outside the US.

• Myth: More roasting increases caffeine content. Roasting does not change the ratio of caffeine to other content. The caffeine level is the same between a dark and a light roast of the same coffee.