Does decaffeinated coffee contain chemicals?

Decaffeinated coffee may seem like a mystery. How can you remove caffeine from a coffee bean? Want to know more? The answer to your questions, right here!

Whether you want to reduce your caffeine intake, drink coffee day and night, or you are a breastfeeding mother, there are several good reasons for consuming decaffeinated coffee. However, the latter often has a bad reputation; many people believe it is unhealthy, or that it tastes rather… ordinary.

It goes without saying that removing the caffeine from a coffee bean is a tall order. You must be able to retain all the delicious aromas of the bean, while stripping it of its most precious asset.

At Café William, our coffee beans are over 99% decaffeinated.

You'll be happy to learn that there is more than one way to decaffeinate beans, and not all of them have elements that are harmful to you. A decaf coffee can be as tasty as a caffeinated coffee!

The natural method (with water)

When decaffeinated with water, the beans are soaked in water to open up their cell structure. The caffeine is then rinsed off with water extracted from green beans. It is filtered with charcoal to remove said caffeine. This method is called Swiss Water or Mountain Water. These are almost identical, but the last uses water from a mountain in Mexico and helps to retain more of the excellent taste of the bean (that’s the method we use here at Café William!).

The chemical method (with solvent)

This process is the fastest and the least expensive. This is a method widely used by companies who want to give a second life to lower quality beans.

The beans are steamed and then immersed in water, which opens their cell structure. A solvent like ethyl acetate or methylene chloride will then rinse the caffeine from the beans. With this method, the coffee loses quality, because the chemical solvents are not very selective and therefore take away some of the good taste of the coffee.

So, what is the best choice for my decaf?

It goes without saying that if you are looking for delicious decaffeinated coffee, selecting a naturally processed one is essential. Naturally decaffeinated coffees retain their original flavor better than chemically decaffeinated ones. In addition, the water process is often indicated on the packaging.

At Café William, we use the Mountain Water process for all our caffeine-free coffees!

Our medium-roasted, organic and fair trade decaf is one of our most popular coffees: it has all the great flavor of coffee, with no exciting effects and no chemicals.