In order to be considered decaffeinated, coffee must have at least 97% of its caffeine removed. Decaffeinating coffee, removing the caffeine from the beans, is a somewhat complicated process. Systems that just soak the beans and flush them with water removed too much of the natural flavor and could leave the coffee bitter. Now coffee is processed by soaking the beans in water and a solvent. Then the water is heated removing the solvent and caffeine. The flavor is returned to the beans and they are dried. The solvent used is a fruit derivative, ethyl acetate. This is what is usually called naturally decaffeinated. Other solvents previously used were found to cause various health problems, including cancer.

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