Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How do you decaffeinate coffee?

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–58 of 58 posts

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#51

Post by pengaru »

hpcjoe wrote: post #18

Wait ... but ... why? (in jest) I understand why, though some of us think of decaf "coffee", much the same way others view white "chocolate". At some point, the thing you modified it to be, isn't representative of the original thing. IMO, it should not be called coffee or chocolate, even with a descriptive adjective up front. This is a minor nit to pick, but still, for those of us with a strong love of (addition to)…

Maybe your goal is to stain your teeth, and you don't particularly appreciate the drug's effects/addiction.

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#53

Post by Fezzik »

connorproctor wrote: post #43
Ozzie_osman wrote: post #42

I want the opposite. Caffeine without the taste of coffee.

You're in luck, caffeine pills cost pennies and are readily available at many strengths.

You can also buy straight caffeine powder to try to make your own drinks. I made a few attempts at creating my own energy drinks with my Sodastream, flavoring, and caffeine powder... it never quite worked though. The powder just tastes like powder, and you can drink it straight with water if you just want the caffeine kick.

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#54

Post by interestica »

ksherlock wrote: post #8
interestica wrote: post #3

Link seems dead now

Still up for me but here's an archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20201031145047/https://www.bbc.c...

Thanks. Guess it was just a temporary 404...

Seems that decaffeinating coffee is stranger than I realized!

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#55

Post by bradknowles »

BurningFrog wrote: post #35
grecy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about you, but I prefer the amount of solvent in my food and drink to be "none", rather than "negligible".

I know what you mean, and this is bordering on willful misunderstanding, but I'll still do this: The most commonly used solvent is water. Ethanol is also a major one: https://www.worldofmolecules.com/solvents/

The Greeks called water “the ultimate solution”, because it could dissolve just about anything, given enough time. It is the original solvent.

Or do we need to restart that program to ban all use of the horrible dihydrogen oxide solvent that pollutes over 70% of the surface of the world? ;)

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#56

Post by yongjik »

grecy wrote: post #11
anamexis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh, the whole premise there seems to be "chemicals bad," while acknowledging that the amount of solvent left in the coffee is negligible.

I'm not sure about you, but I prefer the amount of solvent in my food and drink to be "none", rather than "negligible".

Amount of caffeine in regular coffee: ~100mg per cup.

Caffeine LD50: 150-200 mg/kg (according to Wikipedia).

Maximum allowed amount of methylene chloride in beverages, the dreadful paint thinner, according to the link above: 10 ppm, or about 2 mg per cup.

Methylene chloride LD50: 1.25 g/kg (again, according to Wikipedia).

I.e., you will literally die of caffeine poisoning long before the paint thinner gets you.

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#57

Post by kaesar14 »

jmnicolas wrote: post #41
kaesar14 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s pollutants in literally every square inch of soil of anywhere mankind lives or lives near. Even seals eaten by Inuit in the Arctic Circle are polluted.

To be fair the seals are probably far less polluted than some cheap random chicken bought at the supermarket. The fact that perfection is impossible to reach shouldn't make us abandon and do nothing about it.

Not saying anything about not trying to find perfection. I'm only saying it's unlikely that anything you consume is free of contamination in 2020.

Re: How do you decaffeinate coffee?

#58

Post by mhuffman »

AstralStorm wrote: post #17
montebicyclelo wrote: post #9

Note that decaffeinated coffee often still contains caffeine: “decaf coffee typically has 2-15 milligrams in an 8-ounce cup”, caffeinated is 80-100mg [1]. [1] https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-bean...

There are brands, expensive though, where the number is actually 0. You literally have to use multistage subcritical CO2 filtering to reach that level. Standard methods are not good enough.

What are some of those brands?
Post reply on HN