What is Decaf Coffee? How Decaf Coffee Beans Are Made and How to Brew Them

What is Caffeine?

Caffeine is a natural stimulant. It can be found in many plant species. For the plants themselves, caffeine serves as an insecticide, protecting them from pests.

Humans have been consuming caffeine from plants for hundreds of years. Besides coffee, chocolate and tea also contain certain amounts of caffeine. In the United States, 90% of people consume small amounts of caffeine daily.

How Much Caffeine is in Coffee?

All coffee varieties contain caffeine. However, research shows that Arabica coffee beans contain 40%-50% less caffeine than Robusta coffee beans. Robusta coffee beans are typically used for making canned coffee, while what we usually buy in coffee shops is Arabica coffee. This type of coffee contains 70-150 milligrams of caffeine per cup.

Does Drip Coffee Have Higher Caffeine Content?

The answer is no. In fact, the longer coffee beans are roasted, the less caffeine remains in the coffee. Common roasting methods not only enhance coffee flavor but also reduce the caffeine content in coffee.

What is Decaffeinated Coffee?

The U.S. government strictly controls the caffeine content in decaffeinated coffee. Producing decaffeinated coffee requires removing 97% of the caffeine from raw coffee beans (this process is called decaffeination), so decaffeinated coffee contains only 3% of the original bean's caffeine.

How are Coffee Beans Decaffeinated?

All decaffeination processes reduce the caffeine content in raw coffee beans through water extraction. Some processes require adding different flavors back to the coffee beans after decaffeination. Afterwards, the coffee beans are washed, dried, and finally bagged.

Is Decaffeinated Coffee Bean Processing Safe?

Many decaffeination processes require chemical solvents and gases, while other methods use only water or steam. Currently, the safety of using chemical solvents and methylene chloride to treat coffee beans remains unconfirmed. Methylene chloride has been proven to cause depression and other mental illnesses. However, companies using this method insist that their coffee beans undergo combustion treatment, in which all chlorides have completely volatilized.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Whether you drink full-caffeine or decaffeinated coffee, the processing method behind the bean shapes what ends up in the cup. The washed method is one of the most traditional ways to handle coffee fruit: flotation, pulp removal, a soak to ferment off the mucilage, washing or further soaking, drying, and finally hulling. Because washed beans spend a long time in water, chemical changes consume much of the simple sugars, lowering the bean's sugar content while raising organic acids, so washed coffee tends to keep more of its own aroma and show bright fruit acidity with a clean, fresh profile.

To taste that clarity, try FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gotiti Cooperative, an excellent processing team from Gotiti village whose washed beans show the region's jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity to the fullest, and after a medium-light roast give off green tea and honey notes; it suits pour-over, cold brew, and espresso alike. FrontStreet Kenya Tomato is a leading example of Kenya's double-washed approach, where the extra washing and soaking push the juice-like quality to the extreme, delivering cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar aromas with a sweet-sour, juicy body. FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 shows why washed processing helped Blue Mountain in a climate with limited sun, delivering a pure, balanced blend of hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel.