The Buzz On Decaf

Sometimes a cup of coffee is more than a caffeine buzz, though there are some that might be shocked at the thought. If you are one of those who love the taste of coffee but can’t always have the caffeine, maybe you’ve wondered how the decaffeination process works or what else has been taken away from your coffee besides the jitters. There are many different compounds and chemicals in coffee that make up its taste and caffeine is actually one of those. Caffeine doesn’t have a very big impact on the overall taste of the coffee but it does contribute some acidity; so it is very hard to match the tastes of decaffeinated and caffeinated coffees.
There are several different methods for decaffeinating coffee beans and all of them start by either steaming or soaking green coffee beans to make the caffeine soluble so it can be removed. From that point the process can vary, sometimes chemical solvents are used to remove the caffeine while others use pressurized carbon-dioxide gas or even plain water.
The Swiss water decaffeination process has a lot of fans because it uses no chemicals of any kind. The coffee beans are soaked repeatedly a green coffee extract that contains a lower concentration of caffeine, and the higher concentration in the beans seeps out into the extract and is removed. In chemical solvent methods the water and green coffee extract is replaced with a chemical that dissolves the caffeine. Afterwards, the beans are rinsed and steamed to remove traces of the chemical. None of these methods actually remove all the caffeine from the coffee beans, in fact, the standard for coffee labeled “decaf” is coffee that has had 97% of its caffeine removed.
It’s possible that in the future the need for these processes will no longer be needed. Scientists and researchers have discovered a coffee plant that produces no caffeine. But until this plant is put into mainstream production, Jaho has several different coffees decaffeinated by water processes for you to enjoy without having to worry over your caffeine intake.