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 initial reason for drinking coffee is simply for its energizing effects, but little did they expect that as consumption increases, they would gradually become captivated by the aroma of coffee. However, we all know that coffee can provide energizing effects because it contains large amounts of caffeine. This caffeine is not only an excellent remedy for staying alert but also serves as a constraint that limits coffee consumption.

This is because when a person consumes excessive amounts of caffeine, they can easily experience health issues such as insomnia and heart palpitations. This effect is particularly pronounced for people who are caffeine intolerant. Therefore, to avoid these situations, we need to control our caffeine intake. For most adults, caffeine intake should preferably not exceed 400mg, which converts to about 5 cups of pour-over coffee made with 15g of beans, or about 4 cups of espresso made with 20g of beans. For those who are caffeine intolerant, the recommended amount would be even less.

The Solution: Decaffeinated Coffee

Obviously, for those who are addicted to coffee, this amount is quite limited. If you want to drink more coffee without increasing your caffeine intake, then decaffeinated coffee is the best choice!

What is Decaffeinated Coffee?

Decaffeinated coffee can be directly understood as coffee with lower caffeine content. Because this is a relative concept, if coffee A has lower caffeine than coffee B, then it is considered decaffeinated coffee. There are two types of decaffeinated coffee: one that is naturally grown and one that is artificially decaffeinated. Let's first talk about naturally grown decaffeinated coffee.

Take the two most common coffee species on the market as examples: Arabica and Robusta. The caffeine content of Arabica coffee beans ranges from 0.9% to 1.4%, with an average of 1.2%. Robusta coffee beans, however, range from 1.8% to 4%, with an average caffeine content that is twice that of Arabica. Therefore, relatively speaking, Arabica can also be considered a "low-caffeine coffee" compared to Robusta.

However, in reality, true decaffeinated coffee has about half the caffeine content of regular Arabica coffee beans. Why do I say "regular Arabica beans"? Because decaffeinated coffee is also a member of the Arabica family. The Bourbon variety "Pointed Bourbon" discovered in the original Bourbon Island (now Réunion Island) has only half the caffeine content of regular Arabica species, which is why it is acclaimed as "decaffeinated coffee." But the emergence of artificially decaffeinated coffee reveals a fact: natural decaffeinated coffee cannot meet market demand. This is not only due to high market demand but also because naturally decaffeinated coffee is inherently difficult to cultivate.

Why Natural Low-Caffeine Coffee is Difficult to Grow

Ultimately, it still comes down to caffeine. When we drink coffee, caffeine provides an energizing effect. However, when coffee beans are grown, caffeine serves to resist pests. Due to the low caffeine content of decaffeinated coffee, it has difficulty resisting pest infestations, making cultivation more challenging.

On one hand, there is huge market demand for decaffeinated coffee, while on the other hand, insufficient production of decaffeinated coffee. What can be done? The only solution is artificial "cultivation."

Artificially Processed Decaffeinated Coffee

Before introducing the widely used decaffeination methods today, FrontStreet Coffee would like to first share about the first person who successfully decaffeinated coffee: Mr. Ludwig Roselius from Germany.

In 1903, Mr. Ludwig Roselius invented a method using benzene as a solvent to extract caffeine from raw coffee beans, which was highly successful. The caffeine was completely extracted from the raw coffee beans, and he successfully obtained a patent in 1906. However, did everyone know that this method was actually quite extreme, because benzene is a carcinogen...

Therefore, this method was naturally eliminated! Nowadays, there are three widely known decaffeination methods. The decaffeinated coffee produced by these methods can perfectly meet the decaffeinated coffee standards set by various countries! For example, the EU standard requires that caffeine content should not exceed 1% of raw beans; the US FDA standard requires reduction to less than 3% of the original caffeine content. Now, let FrontStreet Coffee share these three widely known decaffeination methods! They are: direct/indirect solvent processing, supercritical carbon dioxide processing, and Swiss water processing.

Three Major Decaffeination Methods

Solvent Processing Method

The direct/indirect solvent processing method involves soaking raw coffee beans in chemical solutions such as dichloromethane/ethyl acetate to dissolve out the caffeine. Because the solvent "ethyl acetate" mainly comes from sugarcane, the solvent method using ethyl acetate is also called the "sugarcane decaffeination method."

The specific operation of direct solvent processing is: first use steam to open the pores of raw coffee beans, then pour in the solvent to let it combine with the caffeine inside the raw coffee beans, subsequently wash away the caffeine-filled solvent, and finally steam the coffee beans again to evaporate and remove residual solvent from within. At this point, the processing is complete! The indirect solvent processing method, however, first uses hot water to soak out the caffeine and flavor substances from the coffee beans, then removes the hot water, uses solvent to remove the caffeine from the hot water, and finally puts the coffee beans back to absorb the flavor substances... The advantage of the solvent processing method is that it's inexpensive and simple to operate. But the disadvantages are quite prominent: there may be residues of caffeine and even some solvents. Because dichloromethane solvent is now widely considered harmful, this production method with potential safety hazards is gradually being abandoned.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Processing Method

The supercritical carbon dioxide processing method first soaks coffee beans to make them swell, causing caffeine molecules to become loose within the coffee beans! At this point, liquid carbon dioxide is added and an atmospheric pressure higher than 100 is created in the water. It can be said that carbon dioxide has a very clear target - it takes away caffeine during the processing without "grabbing everything" and stealing other substances from the coffee beans. Therefore, this can provide some protection for the coffee's flavor.

But the disadvantage is also quite obvious - it's too expensive!! It requires purchasing specialized equipment for processing, with extremely high costs, making it difficult for many to afford such expensive prices. Therefore, it is the least frequently used method among the three.

Swiss Water Processing

Finally, there's the Swiss water processing method! It was developed by the Swiss company Coffex in the late 1970s, and SWISS WATER® is now a registered trademark. This processing method is quite special; it uses the principle of saturated/unsaturated solutions. The specific method is to first soak a batch of coffee beans in hot water, then completely dissolve the substances from the coffee until it reaches a saturated state. At this point, the raw beans are removed, and activated carbon is used to filter out the caffeine from the solution. Now, the solution is only missing caffeine, while other flavor substances remain in the water, making it a pool of "flavor-saturated liquid." Next, you only need to pour other raw coffee beans into the water for soaking. Because the flavor molecules have already filled every corner of the hot water, the hot water will no longer dissolve the flavor substances from the new batch of coffee beans, only the caffeine, ultimately resulting in a batch of flavorful decaffeinated coffee. Moreover, this hot water only needs to apply the same method to be reused, which is quite simple and reasonably priced. Therefore, Swiss water processing became the mainstream decaffeination method after its introduction.

Taste and Quality of Decaffeinated Coffee

However! Having said this, Swiss water processing still removes substances other than caffeine, including coffee flavor, just not as much. Therefore, we need to understand that artificially decaffeinated coffee generally doesn't perform as well in terms of flavor compared to regular coffee. FrontStreet Coffee currently has a decaffeinated coffee from the Huila region of Colombia, which uses Swiss water processing. The flavor of this brewed coffee actually doesn't differ much from regular Colombian coffee - it has rich nutty and cocoa flavors, along with caramel notes from caramelization reactions, making it very balanced. Although there are no particular highlights, to have a distinct coffee taste with almost no caffeine! That's completely sufficient!

Conclusion

- END -

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473