What Does Swiss Water Process Decaf Coffee Taste Like? What's the Difference Between Natural and Artificial Decaffeination?

Understanding Caffeine in Coffee

For most people the first reason to drink coffee is simply the lift it gives, but few expect that, as consumption grows, they will gradually fall for its aroma. As we all know, coffee energizes because it contains a great deal of caffeine. That caffeine is not only an excellent way to stay alert, but also the very thing that limits how much coffee we can drink.

That is because too much caffeine makes it easy to run into problems such as insomnia and heart palpitations, and the effect is especially pronounced for people who are caffeine intolerant. To avoid these situations, we need to manage our intake. For most adults, caffeine should ideally stay under 400mg, which works out to roughly 5 cups of pour-over brewed with 15g of beans, or about 4 espressos made with 20g of beans. For those who are caffeine intolerant, the recommendation is lower still.

The Solution: Decaffeinated Coffee

For anyone hooked on coffee, that is a fairly tight budget. If you want to drink more coffee without raising your caffeine intake, decaf is the best answer.

What is Decaffeinated Coffee?

Decaf can be understood simply as coffee with a lower caffeine content. Because this is a relative idea, if coffee A has less caffeine than coffee B, then A counts as decaf. There are two kinds: coffee that is naturally low in caffeine, and coffee that is decaffeinated by artificial means. Let us start with the naturally low-caffeine kind.

Take the two most common species on the market, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica beans range from 0.9% to 1.4% caffeine, averaging 1.2%. Robusta ranges from 1.8% to 4%, with an average about twice that of Arabica. So relatively speaking, Arabica can also be considered a "low-caffeine coffee" next to Robusta.

In reality, though, true decaf has about half the caffeine of regular Arabica beans. Why say "regular Arabica"? Because decaf coffee is itself a member of the Arabica family. The Bourbon variety "Pointed Bourbon," discovered on the original Bourbon Island (now Réunion Island), has only half the caffeine of regular Arabica species, which is why it became known as "decaffeinated coffee." But the rise of artificially decaffeinated coffee reveals a fact: naturally low-caffeine coffee cannot meet market demand. Not only because demand is high, but also because naturally low-caffeine coffee is inherently hard to grow.

Why Natural Low-Caffeine Coffee is Difficult to Grow

In the end it still comes back to caffeine. When we drink coffee, caffeine gives us energy. When the coffee plant grows, however, caffeine serves to fight off pests. Because low-caffeine coffee contains so little of it, it struggles to resist pest infestation, which makes cultivation much harder.

On one hand, huge market demand for decaf; on the other, insufficient supply. What is the answer? The only solution is artificial "cultivation."

Artificially Processed Decaffeinated Coffee

Before introducing the decaffeination methods widely used today, FrontStreet Coffee would like to share the story of the first person to successfully decaffeinate coffee: Mr. Ludwig Roselius of Germany.

In 1903, Mr. Ludwig Roselius invented a method that used benzene as a solvent to extract caffeine from green coffee beans, and it worked very well - the caffeine was drawn out of the green beans completely, and he secured a patent in 1906. As you may know, though, the method was rather extreme, because benzene is a carcinogen.

So the method was dropped, of course. Today there are three widely known decaffeination methods, and coffee produced by them comfortably meets the decaf standards set by various countries. The EU standard, for instance, requires caffeine content to be no more than 1% of the green beans; the US FDA standard requires a reduction to less than 3% of the original caffeine content. Now let FrontStreet Coffee walk through these three methods: direct and indirect solvent processing, supercritical carbon dioxide processing, and Swiss water processing.

Three Major Decaffeination Methods

Solvent Processing Method

The direct and indirect solvent methods soak green coffee beans in chemical solutions such as dichloromethane or ethyl acetate to dissolve out the caffeine. Because the solvent ethyl acetate comes mainly from sugarcane, the ethyl acetate route is also called the "sugarcane decaffeination method."

In direct solvent processing, steam is first used to open the pores of the green beans, then the solvent is introduced to bind with the caffeine inside; the caffeine-laden solvent is washed away, and finally the beans are steamed again to evaporate any residual solvent. At that point the process is complete. The indirect method instead soaks the beans in hot water to draw out both caffeine and flavor compounds, removes the water, uses solvent to strip the caffeine from that water, and then returns the beans to reabsorb the flavor compounds. The advantage of solvent processing is that it is cheap and simple. Its drawbacks are equally clear, however: caffeine, and potentially solvent, may remain. Because dichloromethane is now widely regarded as harmful, this process - with its safety risk - is gradually being abandoned.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Processing Method

Supercritical carbon dioxide processing first soaks the beans to make them swell, loosening the caffeine molecules inside. Liquid carbon dioxide is then added and a pressure above 100 atmospheres is created in the water. Carbon dioxide has a very clear target: it carries off the caffeine during processing without "grabbing everything" and stripping other compounds from the beans. That gives the coffee's flavor a degree of protection.

The downside is obvious too: it is far too expensive. It requires dedicated equipment, and the cost is extremely high, putting the price out of reach for many. That is why it is the least used of the three.

Swiss Water Processing

Finally, Swiss water processing. It was developed by the Swiss company Coffex in the late 1970s, and SWISS WATER® is now a registered trademark. This method is unusual in that it relies on the principle of saturated and unsaturated solutions. A batch of coffee beans is first soaked in hot water until the substances drawn from the coffee fully saturate the water. The green beans are then removed, and activated carbon is used to filter the caffeine out of the solution. What remains is water missing only caffeine - everything else stays - a pool of "flavor-saturated liquid." All you then do is soak a fresh batch of green beans in it. Because flavor molecules already fill every corner of the water, the water will no longer dissolve flavor compounds from the new batch - only caffeine - producing a flavorful decaf. Better still, the same water can be reused with the same method, which is simple and reasonably priced. That is why Swiss water processing became the mainstream decaffeination method after its introduction.

Taste and Quality of Decaffeinated Coffee

That said, Swiss water processing still removes some compounds other than caffeine, coffee flavor among them - just not as much. So it is worth understanding that artificially decaffeinated coffee generally does not perform as well on flavor as regular coffee. FrontStreet Coffee currently carries a decaf from Colombia's Huila region that uses Swiss water processing. Brewed, it is not far off a regular Colombian: rich nutty and cocoa flavors, with caramel notes from caramelization, and very well balanced. There are no particular highlights, but to get a distinct coffee taste with almost no caffeine - that is more than enough.

Conclusion

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you want a real coffee taste without the caffeine, the gentlest place to land is FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1. Authentic Blue Mountain is neither as sharply fruity as some African coffees nor as heavy and bitter as a dark roast; instead it strikes an excellent balance among acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and aroma. Expect cream, caramel, chocolate, nuts, honey, and a light fruit thread, a soft, rounded entry, generous mid-palate sweetness, and a clean, long finish - which is exactly why so many coffee professionals call it the specialty coffee that is easiest for the most people to love.

Then there is FrontStreet Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise, from the Bird of Paradise estate in PNG's Sigri region. Because its texture resembles Jamaican Blue Mountain, drinkers often call it "little Blue Mountain." It uses the same Typica variety as Blue Mountain, grown at 1,600 to 1,800 meters in volcanic soil, and it meets the high AA grade standard - plump beans with a very low defect rate - and is triple washed and fermented. The result is clean and pure with pronounced sweetness, another excellent choice for anyone who prefers a coffee without sharp acidity.