How do decaf beans come from? decaf and caffeine? how does decaf taste?

Professional coffee knowledge exchange More coffee bean information Please pay attention to coffee workshop (Weixin Official Accounts cafe_style)

Decaf coffee beans are coffee with only trace amounts of caffeine.

In general, Arabica coffee beans contain 1.1% to 1.7% caffeine, while Robusta coffee beans contain 2% to 4.5% caffeine. Decaf coffee is regulated to contain no more than 0.3% caffeine in brewed coffee. That means no more than 5 milligrams of caffeine in a cup of decaf coffee.

So again, where did this decaf coffee come from?

Thank you very much for calming down and not taking off to see here. First of all, of course, we should look at the comparison chart. The left side is the common decaf coffee beans in the market, and the right side is the ordinary coffee beans that are not deprinted. It is also easy to distinguish from the color, because the steps of decaf treatment must be carried out in the state of coffee beans. There are three main types of decaffeination processes that are common today: traditional/European processes, Swiss water processes (SWP), and CO2 supercritical processes. All three methods are very effective at removing most of the caffeine, leaving only 2- 3% of the original caffeine in the coffee bean.

Part

1

● The European or Solvent Process

There are two variations of solvent treatment. The first is direct solvent treatment. First, steam is used to open the pores of green coffee beans. Solvent is added directly to coffee beans. After solvent and caffeine are fused, steam is used to bring them out. The other is indirect solvent treatment, which begins by dissolving all the flavor in the green coffee beans into hot water (This is a hypothetical state, not really dissolving all the compound beans.) After a period of time, the coffee beans are separated from the hot water with "all" flavors (including caffeine) dissolved. After adding a solvent that attracts caffeine to the hot water, the caffeine will combine with the solvent and float to the surface. It can be easily removed. After that, the caffeine-free hot water will be combined with the coffee beans again. Green coffee beans will absorb the remaining flavor factors back.

Part

2

The Swiss Water-Only Process

There are two main steps to using this commercially developed efficient process. The first step is to pour the green coffee beans into hot water, which removes almost all of the flavor factors, including caffeine, from the beans and discards the initial batch. After that, the hot water loaded with all the flavor factors is filtered out by activated carbon filter, and the rest is the hot water loaded with pure flavor factors. This hot water is called "Flavor-charged Water" in Swiss water treatment method. This water contains saturated, all the flavor factors that coffee beans should have, but lacks caffeine. This special water is the most important medium in the subsequent decaffeination process.

Soaking a new batch of green coffee beans in flavored, caffeine-free water loaded with flavor factors releases caffeine from the green coffee beans, but does not release flavor factors. In this way, the original flavor of the coffee beans will not be greatly reduced. Obviously, the flavor factor in the flavor loaded water is already close to saturation, so no more flavor factors can be dissolved, but there is still a lot of room for caffeine to dissolve.

After this decaffeinated, flavor factor retention process, the green coffee beans are dried and sold directly, and the caffeine-absorbed flavor is loaded with water, which can be repeatedly decaffeinated with activated carbon filters and reused.

Part

3

● Carbon dioxide supercritical process

Carbon dioxide supercritical treatment method is to soak coffee beans in liquid carbon dioxide. Under high pressure, carbon dioxide is in a semi-gaseous and semi-liquid state. Carbon dioxide in this state can actively combine with caffeine, and caffeine is most regrettably filtered by exhaust activated carbon filter.

Either way, the caffeine extracted is resold to cola companies or pharmaceutical companies for reuse, and no caffeine is wasted. As for the flavor of decaf coffee beans, most of the more common flavor is weak, losing the wonderful aroma of coffee beans themselves and the unique flavor of fruit, the so-called fish and bear's paw can not have both, since more needs are decaf coffee, that can only abandon the flavor.

Qianjie Coffee: Guangzhou's baking shop, small store but a variety of beans, can find a variety of famous beans, but also provide online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com