Decaf Coffee Bean Story Decaf Coffee Flavor Features Decaf Coffee Advantages and Disadvantages

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Coffee is delicious, but don't drink too much coffee. Coffee contains caffeine. Qianjie Coffee reminds you that proper caffeine can refresh and relieve fatigue. Excessive caffeine can lead to "poisoning". Decaffeinated coffee removes most of the caffeine and retains the flavor of coffee beans. It is suitable for people who like to drink black coffee and are not tolerant to caffeine. As a result, decaf has also appeared on the market to satisfy the taste buds of coffee lovers.

Origin and development of low-caffeine coffee beans

Speaking of decaf, I have to mention the story of Goethe and Langer. As a literary creator, Goethe drinks a lot of coffee every day. But because he can't metabolize caffeine quickly, he often stays up all night. Having no choice but to try, Goethe turned to his good friend Leng, a chemist, in the hope that he could make the coffee less potent.

In 1898, Langer finally lived up to expectations and successfully discovered caffeine in coffee beans, solving the mystery of Goethe's insomnia in drinking coffee. Since the end of the 19th century, scientists have been studying how to inhibit the effect of caffeine in order to remove caffeine and retain other substances in coffee. In 1903, coffee maker Ludwig Roselius commercialized decaffeinated beans for the first time; the technology matured after continuous improvement. However, the decaffeinated process starts with raw coffee beans, and decaffeinated coffee beans are not easy to bake and their aroma is greatly reduced. So how are decaf beans extracted?

Chemical solvent extraction (traditional method)

Caffeine is extracted by chemical solvent, which is divided into direct and indirect methods.

Direct solvent treatment is the use of dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and other chemical solutions to dissolve caffeine. First of all, steam is used to open the stomata of the raw coffee beans, and the dichloromethane solvent is directly added to the coffee beans. After the solvent and caffeine are fused, the caffeine-filled solvents are washed out, and the coffee beans are boiled again to remove all residual solvents.

There are concerns about using dichloromethane as a solvent because it is suspected that long-term exposure increases the risk of cancer. But in fact, FDA limits the dichloromethane content of decaf to 0.001%, which is actually lower than that, with little side effect.

The process of using ethyl acetate as a solvent is the same, ethyl acetate usually comes from sugar cane, so when used, the direct solvent method is sometimes referred to as sugarcane decontamination. This method is usually used in de-causation in Colombia. But ethyl acetate is a highly flammable substance, so it is more dangerous.

Coffee beans do not come into direct contact with solvents. But now it has generally stopped using this method for deconstruction.

Swiss Water treatment method (SWP)

This method was invented in 1933 without the use of chemical solvents and was commercialized in the 1980s under the registered trademark The Swiss Water ®Process. This treatment will soak the raw coffee beans in hot water, and the soaking stage has actually partially removed caffeine. The soaked solution is then filtered with activated carbon and finally poured back into the coffee beans. This series of steps will be more effective in removing caffeine. In addition to not requiring the use of chemical solvents, the soaked solution can be reused in different batches of treatment procedures, but the coffee will still lose flavor during the filtration process.

The caffeine removal rate of this method can reach 99.9%, which is also the highest method of caffeine removal.

Mountain spring water treatment

Similar to Swiss water treatment, another special kind of water is used to extract caffeine from glaciers. The company Descamex says it uses a special filter to remove caffeine. After treatment, you will get a caffeine-free aqueous solution, which also dissolves the solid substance of coffee and can be reused in the decaffeinated process.

Supercritical carbon dioxide treatment

This treatment is to first let the coffee beans absorb water and expand, and the caffeine molecules are loose in the coffee beans. Add liquefied carbon dioxide and create more than 100 atmospheric pressure in water. Carbon dioxide is highly selective and does not "damage" the carbohydrates and proteins in coffee beans while dissolving caffeine, ensuring that the flavor of coffee beans is not destroyed. Liquid carbon dioxide that takes away caffeine can also be removed and recycled.

Coffee made from decaffeinated carbon dioxide has a lower burden on the human body, and according to the study, this method extracts more coffee than the direct solvent method, and the cost of this method is much higher than that of the direct solvent method.

Advantages and disadvantages of decaf coffee

Caffeine is actually the largest source of antioxidants in Western diets; decaf coffee usually contains antioxidants in similar amounts to regular coffee, but they can be as low as 15%. This difference is probably due to a small loss of antioxidants in the decaffeinated process. So now more and more people choose decaf coffee because it not only has the effect of antioxidation, but also does not affect sleep.

The main antioxidants in regular and decaffeinated coffee are hydrogenated cinnamic acid and polyphenols. Antioxidants are very effective in neutralizing active compounds called free radicals. This can reduce oxidative damage and may help prevent diseases such as heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.

In addition to antioxidants, decaffeinated coffee also contains small amounts of nutrients. A cup of decaffeinated coffee provides 2.4% of the recommended daily intake of magnesium, 4.8% of potassium and 2.5% of niacin, or vitamin B3. This may not seem like a lot of nutrients, but if you drink 2-3 cups (or more) of coffee a day, these amounts will increase quickly.

Combined with the above decaf treatment, Qianjie Coffee believes that the bad taste of decaf coffee is not caused by the treatment. Because most decaf coffee in the raw materials to choose some cheap, commercial grade coffee beans. Modern decaffeinated technology is quite complex, and in most cases, companies that produce decaffeinated coffee will naturally prefer some varieties of coffee beans with high caffeine content (such as robusta beans) when choosing raw materials. Coffee beans have been untasty before decaffeinated beans. Like other coffee beans sold in coffee shops, low-caffeinated coffee can perform very well even after decaffeination if it starts with high-quality Arabica beans from the beginning of raw beans.

Speaking of so many low-caffeine coffee treatments, there is a low-caffeine bean from Huilan in front of the street, and the treatment method used is the Swiss water treatment, which can remove 99.9% of the caffeine. It is also the method with the highest caffeine removal rate.

The color of raw coffee beans after decontamination will be dark green.

After the roasted beans have been placed for a few days, the beans will be more oily and shiny. The reason may be that in the process of decaffeination, coffee beans need to be soaked in hot water to release caffeine, and then dried. In this process, the fiber structure of coffee may have changed, resulting in the release of oil more easily when roasting reaches medium to deep baking.

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