Customers who want to enjoy coffee (and its health benefits) without the side effects of caffeine have been seeking out decaffeinated coffee for decades. This steady demand, from evermore-discerning consumers, has produced a number of different decaffeination processes and some absolutely delicious options.
Below, we offer a brief explanations of the most common decaf processes, along with some of our current offerings!
Ethyl Acetate (EA)
Our Decaf Ethyl Acetate comes from Descafecol, the only decaffeination plant in the Andean region of Colombia. The decaffeination process begins with steaming the green coffee at a very low pressure to remove the silver skins. Green beans are then moistened with hot water, which causes them to swell and soften and begins the hydrolysis of the caffeine, which is bonded to salts of chlorogenic acid. An ethyl acetate solvent (the organic compound C4H8O2, which has a sweet smell that’s created during fermentation) is then circulated through the beans multiple times until at least 97 percent of the caffeine is removed.
Next, a low-pressure, saturated steam is applied to remove any last traces of the ethyl acetate. Finally the coffee is vacuum-dried in drums, cooled to ambient temperature with fans and then polished with carnauba wax to protect it against humidity.
• Colombia Decaf EA: Prune, honey, flan, fig, apricot, smooth.
The Descafecol office and factory. Descafecol is the only decaffeination factory in the Andean region of Colombia.
Methylene Chloride (MC)
Some members of the coffee industry believe the methylene chloride process maintains coffee flavor better than other processes. Green beans are soaked in hot water to extract most of the caffeine and then removed from the water. Next, a methylene chloride (MC) solvent is added to bond with the caffeine and this newly formed methylene chloride/caffeine compound is skimmed from the surface of the mixture (removing 96-97 percent of the caffeine). Finally, the beans are returned to reabsorb the liquid and flavor compounds.
• Brazil Decaf MC: Raisin, honey, plum, toffee, malt.
• Ethiopia Decaf MC: Floral, vanilla, dried fruit, sweet earth.
• Indonesia Sumatra Decaf MC: Chocolate, tobacco, molasses, fig, orange.
Mountain Water Process MWP
Our Mountain Water Process decafs come from Descamex, which uses pure water from Pico de Orizaba—the highest mountain in Mexico. Green coffee beans are steamed and prepared for extraction, using a water-based saturated solution that removes the caffeine while keeping the coffee’s flavor compounds in place.
• Mexico NKG Bloom Yajalon Decaf MWP: Milk chocolate, bright citrus, sweet, clean finish.
Mexico NKG Bloom Yajalon MWP Decaf (or, “The Porcupine”) is available for a limited time.
• Mexico Turquesa Decaf MWP: Honey, graham cracker, chocolate, pear.
Swiss Water Process SWP
Swiss Water Process works through diffusion, not osmosis. When SWP decaffeinates a coffee, the beans are soaked with a small amount of green coffee extract (GCE), which is originally created by soaking beans in water to extract the caffeine and flavor compounds. This creates a saturated solution in which the caffeine leaves but the coffee’s flavor compounds remain in place, unaffected.
In this way, the GCE is like a yeast “mother.” While initially SWP had to sacrifice some coffee to create it, once the first batch was made, it just needs to maintain the health of the GCE and keep it slowly regenerating, which it does by adding small amounts of clean water.
• Brazil Decaf SWP: Honey, cacao, apricot, vanilla.
Morning Glory SWP Decaf is InterAmerican Coffee’s house decaf blend.
• Colombia Decaf SWP: Fig, honey, chocolate, orange, grape.
• Costa Rica Decaf SWP: Malted chocolate, almond, raisin, fig, pastry.
• Guatemala Decaf SWP: Cola, plum, brown sugar, maple.
• Indonesia Sumatra Decaf SWP: Vanilla, molasses, grapefruit, almond, herbal.
• Morning Glory Decaf SWP: Pecan, honey, vanilla, green apple.
• Peru Organic Decaf SWP: Caramel, green grape, golden raisin, cashew.
Top photo: InterAmerican Senior Trader Kayd Whalen, cupping with the Descamex team on a recent trip to Mexico.
