A good video explanation from James Hoffman: https://youtu.be/yYTSdlOdkn0
And a quick follow up: https://youtu.be/IszQ2JR3Olc
A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
21–30 of 180 posts
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#22I'd like to talk a bit more about the cheapest and most common process here. They state that ethyl acetate is below the FDA limits and therefore safe. For a start ethyl acetate is still pretty bad but it's not the cheapest. Another common solvent not mentioned here is Dichloromethane. It's a pretty clear cancer causing agent https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/pr8k9v/til_s... You know what else is a solve…
Do you have evidence that solvents remain in the coffee in significant levels? They're highly volatile so this seems unlikely.
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#23I'd like to talk a bit more about the cheapest and most common process here. They state that ethyl acetate is below the FDA limits and therefore safe. For a start ethyl acetate is still pretty bad but it's not the cheapest. Another common solvent not mentioned here is Dichloromethane. It's a pretty clear cancer causing agent https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/pr8k9v/til_s... You know what else is a solve…
Provide actual links to research or everything you say is fear mongering.
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#24Does it work the same for instant?
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#25I'd like to talk a bit more about the cheapest and most common process here. They state that ethyl acetate is below the FDA limits and therefore safe. For a start ethyl acetate is still pretty bad but it's not the cheapest. Another common solvent not mentioned here is Dichloromethane. It's a pretty clear cancer causing agent https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/pr8k9v/til_s... You know what else is a solve…
Benzene hasn't been used in decades. See this for information about solvent decaffeination:
https://www.compoundchem.com/2018/09/26/coffee-decaffeinatio...
Earlier this year dichloromethane was banned in the US for all but a handful of uses, so producers who used it in the recent past will not be able to any more:
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration...
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#26Will an entrepreneur please make high quality (great tasting) decaf coffee ubiquitous? There's a growing anti-drug sentiment that should be a great tailwind. It's hard for me to find as good tasting a bean as it is with non-decaf. I've tried subscription services or pay huge shipping and product premium from some boutique retailer, the beans are always just ok. Decaf still doesn't get enough priority as the product i…
I'm not sure what your standards are, but I'm not sure if this is even possible. I drink Stumptown which I grind at home for my espresso machine -- their caffeinated Hair Bender blend in the morning, and then in the afternoon I'll often have their decaf Trapper Creek (Swiss water process) on the days I don't need an extra jolt. It tastes perfectly great to me. Maybe my palette isn't refined enough. But decaffeination…
The gold standard for this in sensory analysis is a triangle test — which I happen to have done with coffee from Ninth St Espresso, who sells a regular and substantial identical decaf. We brewed 3 identical batches (where 2 were the same beans and the 3rd was the other bean). In an office with ~12 tasters, the ability to pick out the “different” beans was 33%… ie random chance.
If the above sounds confusing, consider red wine vs white wine… visual inspection alone would get you 100% accuracy.
I used to believe decaf processing would have to change the taste, but empirically, with admittedly untrained tasters (but ones who know coffee very well), we couldn’t tell.
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#27It is somewhat magical to me that these processes can be as selective as they are. Coffee beans must have hundreds if not thousands of organic compounds in them, and somehow something as simple as co2 (or the other solvents) picks up mainly caffeine. Somehow that is very counterintuitive to me.
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#28The decaf process seems expensive so you might expect the end result to cost more, but it never does. Which means either the producers are making less profit on decaf, or they are using lower quality beans. If the latter is true, which seems more likely, that might explain why decaf sometimes tastes less good, separately from the effect of the process itself on taste.
I don't know if this makes a difference, but my understanding is that most additive/non-natural (for lack of better terms) caffeine comes from caffeine extracted to make decaf.
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#29The decaf process seems expensive so you might expect the end result to cost more, but it never does. Which means either the producers are making less profit on decaf, or they are using lower quality beans. If the latter is true, which seems more likely, that might explain why decaf sometimes tastes less good, separately from the effect of the process itself on taste.
I suspect that when you buy decaf beans from a roaster they don't aren't the ones decaffeinating the coffee beans. I think roasters have a lot less choice when buying decaffeinated beans so I bet your theory is correct.
I've noticed many roasters have only one decaf option. But there are exceptions. Equator Coffees has many blends available in both regular and decaf, with the decaf costing slightly more (e.g. $15.30 vs. $15.75 for a subscribe-and-save 12 oz bag). They advertise "decaffeinated using the mountain water process of caffeine extraction", which I believe is the same as the article's Swiss water process. Not sure if they have their own equipment or if they assemble their blends, send them off, get them back and roast them.
Re: A chemist explains the chemistry behind decaf coffee
#30I'd like to talk a bit more about the cheapest and most common process here. They state that ethyl acetate is below the FDA limits and therefore safe. For a start ethyl acetate is still pretty bad but it's not the cheapest. Another common solvent not mentioned here is Dichloromethane. It's a pretty clear cancer causing agent https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/pr8k9v/til_s... You know what else is a solve…
The reddit post mentions that DCM is evaporated and it is basically not present after the process. Actually the thread mentions that all the fuss like your post is mostly scaremongering without actual understanding the mechanisms. Do you have evidence that indeed the phase change and separations may not happen?
"Basically" and "mostly" undermine your assertion.