How To Make Decaffeinated Coffee?
Many people have the bad experience of consuming too much caffeine, shaking hands, rapid heartbeat, and anxiety. Except for poor quality coffee, it is usually attributed to the influence of caffeine.
For some sensitive people, just a little caffeine is enough to have a negative effect. At this time, decaffeinated coffee is a good choice for more sensitive people or those who deliberately quit caffeine.
But some people have been curious, can decaffeinated coffee also be a premium grade? Would it still taste the same if the micro-batch of selected beans were used for the low-factor process? And how is caffeine removed? There are many misconceptions about the quality and health effects of decaffeinated coffee. This article allows us to understand decaffeinated coffee.
Who Is Decaffeinated Coffee Suitable For? Why Drink It?
All coffee has caffeine in its natural state, and this chemical composition is considered to protect the coffee tree from pests, and it is also used to prevent seeds from competing for the tree's nutrients.
And caffeine has been used as a stimulant for thousands of years, but sometimes we don't want the side effect of coffee. However, in addition to this reason, more factors make people choose decaffeinated coffee instead of normal coffee. Of course, there are health problems recognized by the general public.
The 2018 American Coffee Association report pointed out that 42% of coffee drinkers choose to drink decaffeinated coffee, and most of them are young people in society. Some market research points out that consumers who decide decaffeinated coffee are more willing to spend more money on coffee for quality.
Where Does Decaffeinated Coffee Come From?
Ludwig Roselius invented decaffeinated coffee in 1905. He used benzene to remove caffeine from green coffee beans. The chemical substance benzene has been proven to cause cancer. Therefore, there should be no use of benzene to remove caffeine in decaffeinated coffee on the market.
However, all modern decaffeination technologies are derived from the same technique. First, the green coffee beans are soaked in water to dissolve the caffeine in the water to achieve the effect of decaffeination. There are mainly several decaffeination technologies:
It's time to Know the Decaffeinated coffee! Please enjoy your coffee break!
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Direct Solvent Method
This is the most common decaffeination process. The direct solvent method uses dichloromethane or ethyl acetate to dissolve the caffeine.
The coffee beans are soaked in the solvent, and the solvent adheres to the caffeine molecules, and then the solvent is recovered, and then the coffee beans are washed. The steam from the coffee beans will remove the remaining solvent. The coffee beans are dried, and then the normal roasting process.
The US Food and Drug Administration limits the methylene chloride content in decaffeinated to 10 parts per million (0.001%). Long-term exposure to dichloromethane is suspected to increase the risk of cancer, so there are some concerns about using this solvent.
Ethyl acetate is usually derived from fruit or sucrose, so when used, the direct solvent method is sometimes referred to as a natural decaffeination process. However, ethyl acetate is a highly flammable substance, so it is highly dangerous. It also has a special smell, which may remain in the decaffeinated coffee.
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Carbon Dioxide Treatment Method
The carbon dioxide treatment method is similar to the direct solvent method. The coffee beans are soaked in warm water, and then the high-pressure liquefied carbon dioxide is substituted for the solvent to extract caffeine. Then the carbon dioxide returns to room temperature and becomes a gas.
Coffee made from carbon dioxide decaffeinated coffee has a lower burden on the human body. According to research, the amount of caffeine extracted by this method is more than that of the direct solvent method. Still, the cost of this method is much more expensive than the direct solvent method.
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Swiss Water Treatment Act
This processing method will soak the green coffee beans in hot water, and the caffeine has been partially removed during the soaking stage. The steeping solution is then filtered with activated carbon, and finally, the solution is poured back into the coffee beans. This series of steps will remove caffeine more effectively. In addition to not requiring chemical solvents, the steeping solution can be reused in different batch processing procedures. However, the flavor of the coffee will still be lost during the filtration process.
The disadvantage of this treatment method is that the production cost is much more expensive than the two solvents mentioned above methods. The extracted caffeine is directly filtered out and cannot be used for other commercial purposes.
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Mountain Spring Water Treatment Method
This is the use of another special kind of water, water taken from glaciers to extract caffeine. The company Descamex stated that they use a special filter device to remove caffeine.
After treatment, a caffeine-free water-based solution will be obtained. This solution also dissolves coffee solids and can be reused in the decaffeination process.
This treatment method and the Swiss water treatment method are both treatment methods that do not use chemical solvents. Therefore, some consumers regard it as a safer and healthier choice.
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Can Decaffeinated Coffee Also Be Specialty Coffee?
Everyone often recognizes that the flavor of decaffeinated coffee is flat and boring. Although caffeine itself does not have any smell, the most critical flavor substances of coffee beans will be lost in the process of processing, and the loss of flavor has nothing to do with the action of decaffeinating.
The biggest challenge for companies making decaffeinated coffee is to find a way to extract the caffeine without sacrificing the flavor of the coffee beans. This has always been a very controversial topic in the specialty coffee world.
The most common treatment method is to use solvents to remove caffeine directly. This method will directly destroy the flavor of coffee because the target of removal cannot be targeted at caffeine. The approach will be better understood). These substances that bring deliciousness to coffee will be consumed in large quantities during the processing process, which will have a huge negative impact on the flavor of the coffee.
He also said that lower-quality coffee beans often use solvent treatment because the beans themselves do not taste delicious.
But these words do not mean that there is no low-cause specialty coffee. Using good-quality coffee beans and using a processing method with a lower loss of flavor to remove caffeine, you can also get good-quality coffee.
The low-cause coffee beans obtained by the Swiss water treatment method will destroy their flavor to a lesser extent, but its processing cost is higher, so it is less used to process low-cause coffee.
Swiss water treatment method retains the solid dissolved substances of coffee beans. This technology extracts caffeine through activated carbon that specifically filters out caffeine.
This step preserves the flavor of the coffee origin and batch processing. To verify that the flavor is preserved, we will perform cupping before and after the decaying process.
Readers with an experimental spirit can choose coffee beans from different producing areas and different decaying methods and try to compare (or even cup) with an open mind. You may find a decaffeinated coffee with a better flavor than expected. After all, market demand has always existed, and we cannot ignore it.
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Must Decaffeinated Coffee Be Presented In Dark Roast?
Coffee beans that have undergone the decaying process have more pores and are more susceptible to heat. The roaster also needs to make some adjustments when roasting. The development of coffee flavor takes longer, which means that the roasting time takes longer. The flavor loss is caused by the processing mentioned above procedures. If the low-factor coffee beans are presented in a shallow roast, it will cause a lack of flavor, flavor dispersion, sweetness, and insufficient acidity. The alternative is to roast the coffee beans through darker roasting. Caramelization creates another flavor profile and sweetness.
If the roasting methods mentioned above run counter to your perception of specialty coffee, please don't be frustrated. There are still good-quality decaffeinated coffees that you can explore.
Although decaffeinated coffee cannot be the same as normal coffee, there are still many decaffeinated coffees that are lightly roasted to retain the natural acidity and sweetness of coffee beans.
Decaffeinated coffee has been in operation for a long time, and the decaffeinated coffee obtained from Swiss water treatment has good results. It retains the original flavor of the coffee as much as possible. The biggest problem now is that most operators still use low-quality beans. Making decaffeinated coffee, of course, the quality of the coffee you get is not good.
We are negotiating with a Colombian green bean supplier. Their coffee has a cup score of 86 or higher. We hope to use their coffee to produce decaffeinated coffee.
It may be challenging to find the specialty flavor in decaffeinated coffee, but there are still some options.
By understanding the processing procedures of different decaffeinated coffees and understanding how decaffeinated coffee beans are roasted, you can know how to find decaffeinated coffee with a good flavor without stepping on thunder.
Of course, it may be expensive to buy high-quality decaffeinated coffee, but more and more people are willing to pay more for coffee, and when more people choose decaffeinated coffee, what they can do is meet the needs of users.
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