One of the reasons people like to drink coffee is the stimulating effect of the caffeine it contains. Consuming caffeine is a great way to boost your mental alertness and boost your energy levels. However, some people choose to avoid caffeine, often for health reasons or because they find its effects unpleasant.
If you like the taste of coffee but don't like caffeine, you can always try decaf coffee.
In this post, we'll share everything you need to know about decaffeinated coffee, including answers to frequently asked questions like what is decaffeinated coffee. and “How to make decaf coffee?”.
Let's dive!
First of all, what is decaffeinated coffee?
Decaffeinated coffee, also called 'decaf', is coffee that has had most of the caffeine removed. This can be accomplished using various processes (more on that below). Each process aims to remove most of the caffeine from the green coffee bean while preserving the important molecules that give coffee its wonderful flavor and aroma.
Interestingly, the amount of caffeine that must be extracted for a coffee bean to be called 'decaffeinated' differs between countries. In the United States, the USDA requires decaffeinated coffee to have at least 97% of the caffeine removed.
In the European Union, a coffee product can be considered decaffeinated only if at least 99.9% of its caffeine content has been removed. This would be about 0.1 mg of caffeine in your average cup of decaf coffee.
Is there caffeine in decaf coffee?
Yes like that. It's important to understand that decaffeination never removes all the caffeine from the coffee bean. This is because removing all of the caffeine from the bean also removes most of the valuable compounds that give the bean a great taste and aroma.
In other words, if this is done, you will end up with an extremely bland-tasting bean!
How much caffeine is in decaf coffee?
Your typical cup of coffee is about 236 ml and contains about 120 mg of caffeine. If you're drinking decaf in the EU, you can expect to have less than 0.1 mg of caffeine in your cup. If you're decaffeinated in the United States, at least 97% of the caffeine has been removed, so it will contain 3.6 grams or less of caffeine. If you're trying to avoid caffeine for a medical reason, it's important to note that decaffeinated ingredients will still contain some caffeine.
So, how is coffee decaffeinated?
Coffee can be decaffeinated in a variety of ways. However, all these methods will change the chemical makeup of the 'green' coffee bean before it is roasted. The main purpose of decaffeination is to remove the caffeine from the coffee bean while preserving the molecular components that give the bean its aroma.
Decaffeination is a difficult process to get right because coffee beans have a complex structure in which more than 1,000 chemicals contribute to the flavor and aroma of the bean. If the process is too harsh and removes or replaces many of these chemicals, the resulting coffee will taste terrible!
So how are coffee beans decaffeinated? Well, there are several methods:
Indirect solvent process
This is a very common technique for decaffeination in Europe. Green coffee beans are first soaked in very hot water for a few hours. This removes most of the caffeine content of the beans, along with the compounds that give the beans their flavor.
The green beans are removed and the water is transferred to another tank. The water is treated with methylene chloride or ethyl acetate, chemicals that will bind with the caffeine molecules.
The resulting mixture can then be heated to remove both the solvent and the caffeine molecules by evaporation. The beans are then reintroduced to reabsorb the oils and chemicals responsible for flavoring the coffee beans.
The water is reused in subsequent batches of beans to add more flavor to each batch. Eventually, a balance is reached where most of the beans' coffee flavor is decaffeinated.
Direct solvent process
Green coffee beans are steamed for about 30 minutes to open their pores, then exposed to a solvent, usually methylene dichloride or ethyl acetate. They are washed for about 10 hours in solvent to remove any caffeine. The solvent is drained and the beans are washed repeatedly to remove any solvent residue.
The 'Swiss Water' process
This is also a chemical-free decaffeination method that was first developed in Switzerland in 1933. It was made commercially available in the 1980s by a company called Coffex. This method uses solubility and osmosis to extract caffeine from the beans.
The Swiss water process begins by soaking the beans in very hot water to dissolve the caffeine. The water is removed and passed through the activated carbon filter. This filter captures relatively large caffeine molecules while allowing smaller molecules and oils to pass through, which gives coffee its flavor.
This results in unflavored coffee beans and a decaf coffee flavored water solution in a tank. Tasteless beans The first batch is discarded and the coffee-flavored water is used to extract the caffeine from a fresh batch of beans.
Because the water already contains the oils and molecules that give flavor to the coffee, the oils and molecules in the second batch of beans cannot be dissolved as effectively. This means the caffeine will be removed from the second batch of beans, but they retain most of their flavor.
Decaffeinated coffee produced by this method is often labeled decaffeinated "Swiss Water". It is the method used for most organic coffee beans because it does not contain chemicals.
CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) Method
This is the newest method for decaffeinating coffee beans. The CO2 method was developed by a researcher at the Max Planck Institute, Dr. Developed by Kurt Zosel. This process uses CO2 to extract caffeine from green coffee beans instead of a chemical solvent.
Green coffee beans are soaked in water and placed in a stainless steel container. The container is sealed and the liquid CO2 is forced at high pressure to extract the caffeine from the beans while leaving the flavor molecules behind. Caffeine-rich liquid CO2 is pumped into another vessel where air pressure is released, causing it to become a gas once again, leaving behind the caffeine molecules. The gas is then pumped back into the first container, ready for the next batch of beans.
Comments