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by Jared Garrett

If you like the taste, but not the kick, decaf is often your best bet when it comes to coffee. But have you ever wondered how they get that pesky caffeine out of the coffee? Well all your questions will now be answered.

In essence, the caffeine is soaked out of the coffee beans, usually when they are green. The beans are soaked in a solution of water and methylene chloride or ethyl acetate. These chemicals are quite tame and never actually touch the bean, so this process is not too bad. Furthermore, you can actually find ethyl acetate in some fruits, so companies that use it can say that their coffee is decaffeinated naturally.

However, there are three common methods of doing this soaking and dissolving of caffeine. They are the Carbon Dioxide process, the Sparkling Water process, and the Swiss Water process. All of these are similar, but the Swiss Water method actually soaks two batches. The first batch of beans is junked, but then the water left over is used in the next batch and this helps the flavor.

The sparkling water method follows the carbon dioxide process. This CO2 process soaks the beans in concentrated carbon dioxide. Then the caffeine is removed from the CO2 by using a water soak.

In the end, this is not really a process you want to try at home. You would need a chemistry lab to get this done. So for now, keep buying that decaf at the market!

Learn more about this author, Jared Garrett.

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