Decaffeinated Coffee

Many people that enjoy coffee but don’t want the caffeine usually choose decaffeinated coffee.  Decaffeinated coffee has been around since 1905, when Café Sanka was introduced, now the brand is known just as Sanka.  Originally coffee was decaffeinated by steaming green coffee beans and then a solvent is used to wash away the caffeine, this process may take from 8 to 12 times repeated to complete the decaffeinated process.  This process is also similar to those used to decaffeinate tea.  The first solvent used was benzene, however since 1905, benzene has been found to be a dangerous substance to be consumed by humans.

Today there are many decaffeinated coffee methods.  Most methods steam the green coffee beans and still use a solvent such as acetone.  There are others that use a charcoal filter method, and there are scientists now working on a coffee bean that may grow naturally with very low caffeine levels.

Coffee is labeled decaffeinated if 97% of the caffeine has been eliminated.  In the European Union, a coffee is labeled decaffeinated if the coffee beans have less than 0.10% caffeine by mass at the end of the process.   Unfortunately with so much steaming and processing, besides ridding the coffee bean of caffeine, other essential parts of coffee are washed away as well.

Decaffeinated coffee is usually less tasty and aromatic than normal coffee, which definitely has an overriding influence on the amount of people that drink it.  If you love the taste of coffee, but must stay away from the caffeine associated with it, try decaffeinated coffee.