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How is Organic Decaf Coffee Made?
As a coffee enthusiast, you want to feel confident that purchasing organic decaf is both good for your health and aligns with responsible consumption practices. That is why it is vitally important to understand how decaffeination happens: its journey from bean to cup can be complex – decaffeination makes a substantial impactful difference on flavor profile of final cup! Although 100% caffeine removal is impossible due to extraction processes used on beans during processing, most methods provide impressive levels of caffeine removal from beans.
First step of decaf coffee preparation involves soaking green coffee beans in water to extract caffeine molecules from their surface, using chemical solvents or natural approaches (Swiss Water Method).
Chemical methods typically employ ethyl acetate, derived from fruit or cane sugar. This highly-flammable solvent produces an unpleasant odor which may remain in the final product; furthermore, when roasting coffee beans it transfers onto them and it can even lead to regular decaf having an unusual chemically-delicate taste.
Methylene chloride, another widely used decaffeination chemical solvent, has long been linked to respiratory ailments, blood disorders and even gestational issues in pregnant women. Unfortunately, despite being classified as a carcinogen it continues to be widely used by brands which do not need to disclose which chemical they use on their packaging.
Swiss Water decaffeination method was first developed in 1933 as an alternative to chemical decaffeination processes, using only water to extract caffeine from coffee beans. By soaking beans in flavor-saturated water and then passing it through activated charcoal filters which trap any remaining caffeine molecules, flavor-saturated water naturally extracts its caffeine through osmosis and draws out any remaining molecules through osmosis osmosis is repeated until there is no caffeine remaining in any of them – until all caffeine molecules have been extracted and there is no remaining caffeine left osmosis process osmosis process completed and all remaining molecules have been captured and all remaining molecules have been removed through osmosis extraction!
The Swiss Water Process yields decaffeinated coffee that is 99% caffeine free. As an eco-friendly, solvent-free process, it produces superior decaf without the negative side effects associated with traditional chemical-based processes. When selecting your next cup of decaf coffee, opt for organic beans processed using this eco-friendly and solvent-free method; this will preserve their unique flavors while eliminating any unpleasant chemical undertones from your final brew brew! Enjoy!