Organic decaf offers the ideal balance of taste and tranquility. While no decaffeination method can completely remove caffeine from a drink’s contents, many methods significantly decrease caffeine levels while removing chemical residues that could alter natural flavor profiles.

Coffee should be enjoyed for its flavor, health and environmental impact – not for its synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, which pose health threats to farmers, their surroundings and ultimately to you.

The Methylene Chloride Method

Decaffeination involves immersing green coffee beans in a solution of methylene chloride (also known as dichloromethane) and ethyl acetate, which dissolves caffeine molecules while leaving flavor compounds, oils and fats that make coffee so tasty behind. Once rinsed and dried, any trace amounts of chemical residue (the FDA allows this) remain.

Although some health-conscious consumers shy away from decaf made with this method due to methylene chloride’s potential carcinogenicity, the Food and Drug Administration has determined that any risks from its presence are virtually nonexistent. Furthermore, as coffee roasting temperatures of 400oF vaporize most traces of the chemical leaving only small traces in your cup.

Swiss Water Process, an alternative to chemical solvents, uses only water and carbon filtration to decaffeinate coffee or tea leaves. Swelled green coffee beans or tea leaves are soaked for 8-10 hours in water pre-saturated with all soluble flavors except caffeine; an osmosis-like process then draws out caffeine through selective migration while leaving behind other soluble flavors and oils; the beans are then filtered before their extraction water can be reused to extract more beans or leaves.

Organic decaf is distinguished from its chemical counterpart by retaining all its nutty, fruity, and chocolaty characteristics for a richer, more nuanced tasting experience. However, these methods require much longer processing times compared with chemical alternatives.

The Swiss Water Process

The Swiss Water Process is a chemical-free way of decaffeinating coffee. Using pure and clean water to flush caffeine molecules out of beans while keeping behind flavor compounds essential to their individual character, the beans are then rehydrated and dried down to 10.2% moisture content ready for roasting.

This process relies on diffusion rather than osmosis to extract caffeine and flavor components from coffee beans. Green coffee beans are first soaked in a solution called Green Coffee Extract (GCE) that contains all of these compounds except caffeine, then used to soak actual decaf coffee beans that will be sold. Filtered water then passes through another carbon filter designed only to filter out caffeine molecules; after which it’s passed back through GCE again until all 99.9% caffeine molecules have been removed from each bean and this cycle repeats until all components have been extracted – with this cycle repeated until all 99.9% caffeine free coffee beans.

Once the final product has been produced, 85% of the water that was used to make GCEs is returned back into local community water supplies; any excess is then cleaned and reused on another batch of coffee beans being decaffeinated.

Stacey Lynden, cupping lab manager of Swiss Water team explains their unique process for keeping coffees tasting their best. Stacey and her team cup and perform physical analysis on every coffee that the Swiss Water plant decaffeinates to ensure that the finished coffee maintains its original flavors and aromatic qualities.

Swiss Water’s team of roasters take great care in maintaining an original flavor profile, while also taking special consideration to preserve each bean’s origin characteristics and unique tastes. Because swollen bean structures may react differently when exposed to heat, their decaffeinated coffee may roast differently from that produced using either MC or EA decaf processes.

Jim’s is proud to offer many varieties of organic coffee decaffeinated with the Swiss Water Process for your tasting pleasure – don’t be shy: try them all! We hope Jim’s encourages you to do just that!

The Ethyl Acetate Method

The Ethyl Acetate Method uses solvents — most often methylene chloride or ethyl acetate — to wash coffee beans and remove their caffeine content directly, in this direct decaffeination process. Soaking green coffee beans for 10+ hours removes up to 99% of their caffeine. Unfortunately, however, both chemicals have carcinogenic properties as well as neurological issues in rats and humans, making this decaf option slightly more costly than the Swiss Water Process and require additional steps such as washing away any trace chemicals.

Ethyl acetate occurs naturally, but for commercial production it’s much simpler and cost-effective to combine alcohol ethanol and acid acetic (vinegar). Ethyl acetate is less toxic than its predecessor methylene chloride and has been used in food processing, cleaning mixtures and perfume production. Since this chemical is considered more natural in terms of processing methods it often appears labeled as such on organic decafs but no such regulatory definition exists for this term.

This method uses a similar process as the Swiss Water Process by immersing coffee beans in boiling water to extract some of their flavor elements and oils, but instead relies on solubility and osmosis rather than chemical extraction methods. Once extracted, this liquid is passed through a carbon filter designed to capture larger caffeine molecules while permitting smaller oil/flavor molecules through. Once complete, this coffee extract is then recycled back through and repeated until all caffeine has been removed from its beans.

Non-solvent methods of decaffeination provide greater attention to the original bean, allowing its natural flavors and aromas to come through without chemical residues obscuring them. Still, any coffee, including organic decaf, will contain some level of caffeine; to make sure you’re buying an entirely caffeine-free product it is wise to check packaging and inquire as to specific decaffeination processes being employed by a company.

The Solvent Method

Solvent-based coffee decaffeination involves using chemicals to dissolve caffeine from coffee beans using solvents such as methylene chloride and ethyl acetate; then recycling them later for future use. Once decaffeinated, this coffee can then be roasted as usual before any remaining chemicals might remain, though likely at very small levels compared with any other green coffee; this process is a common approach used for decaffeinating organic coffee.

Solvent extraction is an established way of separating compounds based on their relative solubilities in two immiscible liquids, determined by chemical potential energy of each compound – higher chemical potential energy means more solubility for it in an organic solvent and hence, this type of separation process is known as liquid-liquid extraction (LLE).

The direct solvent method uses either methylene chloride or ethyl acetate to extract caffeine from coffee beans, making it the most widely utilized and practiced decaffeination technique. Unfortunately, LLE may leave behind an unpleasant, oily residue on beans that alters flavor when decaffeinated; furthermore it presents environmental concerns since these liquids must be disposed of safely in order to avoid air emissions that can pollute our environment.

Carbon Dioxide Removal Method | Coffee Bean Solutions Inc. For those seeking a less harmful solution than using chemicals like methylene chloride and ethyl-acetate to extract caffeine from beans, liquid CO2 offers another less hazardous approach: using pressure in a stainless steel vessel soaked with water-soaked beans in which CO2 acts as a selective solvent, extracting only caffeine from coffee beans.

Green solvents for decaffeination is an ongoing area of research. To assist this effort, several solvent selection guides have been produced that provide more insight than just regulatory analyses can. This helps mitigate environmental, health and safety risks while increasing extraction efficiencies and selectivity.