Ask Mike: Cutting out the caffeine
Hey Guys,
It’s not complicated to add ingredients to food. For example, a bag of potato chips with “50% more salt” won’t cause much astonishment. On the other hand, foods and beverages that remove naturally occurring ingredients amaze me. Take decaffeinated coffee — how in the world do they do it? I downed a double espresso with a twist of lemon and set out to find out.
The short answer: Hot water and lots of it. A column from LBC.co.uk explains that when coffee is soaked or steamed, the caffeine goes into the hot water. However, a lot of the flavors also get removed. To get the flavors back, “the water is then returned to the beans for reabsorption of flavors and oils.” The caffeine stays out, but the flavor comes back. Weird.
The site GoAskAlice goes into more detail, but keeps it easy to understand. Apparently, there are several methods for removing the caffeine from coffee. Some are more chemical than others, but all end with the same results — a pleasantly bitter beverage that won’t you keep awake at night.
Interestingly, just because a cup of coffee is classified as “decaf,” that doesn’t mean it’s 100% caffeine free. In order to be called decaffeinated, the coffee has to have caffeine levels of 2.5% or less. Anything more, and the coffee can’t legally be classified as decaf.
Wikipedia details all the various methods one can use to get the caffeine out of coffee, and also notes that “the first commercially successful decaffeination process” was invented by Ludwig Roselius and Karl Wimmer in 1903.” The pair used brine and benzene to remove the caffeine. According to About.com, the process may have been discovered by accident. Kind of like Post-It Notes and penicillin.
Personally, while I love coffee, I’m hardly a connoisseur. Do you guys know how to tell the good stuff from the bad? Is it like wine tasting or do you think all coffee tastes the same? Please leave a comment with your advice below.
Thanks for reading,
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i have a belly with alot of opinions.millstone breakfast blend,by folgers is some of the best.yet folgers,the brand i grew up on is now about the worst.my wife changed brands to save $ and i thought i was going to go to the hospital.i dont know what their using to process it but i suspect it’s battery acid.slightly used bucket of folgers custom roast available.cheap.
Hee hee,
I prefer coffee with lots of milk in it. So then, it tastes like tea!
Most store bought coffees are stale, most don’t know it. Find a local roaster and it tastes much better. If you must order online I like Gevalia(find em online) I always mix 50/50 caffienated/Decaf
I have to have my coffee, black, but only MY coffee. The Gevalia brand from Italy is about the only one I drink these days. I don’t consider myself to be a connoisseur either, but when I travel away from home, the coffee at the local coffee shop is usually so bad, I have to chug it in order to get it down. I’ve even tried to disguise it with milk and enough sugar to make my spoon stand up, but it doesn’t really help. Maybe I’m spoiled. Or maybe Gevalia has an addictive chemical other than the caffeine, that won’t let me enjoy any other brand… I don’t know…But I wholeheartedly agree with andrew, the poster above, that some of these brands taste like they’ve been processed with battery acid – terrible stuff! And I’d rather be roasted alive than to drink coffee without caffeine – that decaf stuff tastes worse… if that’s even possible!!
Cheers!
I can tell burnt coffee from un-burnt coffee and I can tell the difference between say, folgers and more expensive grinds, or say folgers and dunkin donuts. But I’m not a coffee snob at all. I’ll drink pretty much all coffee to end the negative effects of caffeine withdrawals in the morning.
I would prefer to never try to tell the good stuff from the bad. I like my milk whole, my coffee caffeinated and my liquor flooringly potent.
Maxwell house regular or nothing! The only hot water that should be used my coffee maker produces.
I use to think all coffee tasted the same, and that Folgers Instant was as good as it gets. Then I worked at the big “S” (Starbucks) for 3 years. If one good thing came from my time there, it was my foot in the world of coffee connoisseurs.
Coffee tastings consisted of set keys. The first: aroma. In the begining all coffee smells the same, but with practice, experience and effort, you come to find a distinct difference in smell with every cup of coffee.
Now it’s time to slurp the coffee to see where it hits on your tongue. Some coffees hit the tip of your tongue when slurped, while others seem to hit you at the back. You also test the acidity of the coffee, or the sharpness of it. Some coffees have a dull, heavy taste, while others have a sharp, more tangy affect.
Next you want to define the body (i.e. thickness). As non-fat milk and whole milk have a difference in thickness (though to most it’s very subtle), so does coffee.
And last you define the taste within the coffee. Some coffees have citrus undertones, nutty undertones, earthy, smokey, or cocoa undertones. You also detect the strength of the coffee, as in mild or bold. Coffee tastings (or testings) should be done with black coffee, as sugar and cream would clearly alter the raw taste of the coffee itself. As I have said, it all comes with practice, experience and effort.
I will be honest to say that even though I enjoyed my time at Starbucks, I find their drip coffee to be near the bottom of my list. I’m actually a McDonald’s coffee lover when it’s hot and fresh. It’s bold and smooth! (I was harshly rebuked in front of my fellow partners by my manager when she heard that one!). I enjoy strong coffee with a very low acidity, so when I’m buying coffee at the markey, Italian Roast is usually my choice.
One more thing is a french press. The joy of coffee thrives in a french press! The flavor of your coffee is better preserved, as well as the oils of the coffee bean that is mostly lost in a brewing machine. I hope you didn’t mind this blog of my own.
~sweetheart
I Love caffene
I just recently eliminated caffeine from my diet, it was a hard process to go through, the withdrawal symptoms pretty much kept me in the bed for a few days….caffeine is an addictive drug and I highly recommend that it be kept away from children.
i used to be a coffee snob. i even worked at a cafe.
then i got sick, and could no longer have the caffine, so i switched to decaf.
it’s disgusting!!!
i can rarely find a decaf that is drinkable, letalone nice.
i have found two coffee shops so far in melbourne that can make a nice decaf – and they both roast their own coffee!!!
Mike, I don’t get it. I understand not wanting caffiene. In terms of danger, caffiene is greatly underestimated by most people. I get that.
But only the most expensive coffees offer a good taste. And the spearation process can be done to preserve flavor in the separation process. Of course I speak for myself, but I think ordinary coffee without the caffiene belongs in ice cream.
My favourite? Royal Tonga coffee, freshly brewed, with a drop of vanilla! How to tell the difference? I don’t know what words they use, but I just use my tongue to tell what coffee I like or don’t. I’ve heard words like “full-bodied” etc, but can’t tell you what they mean.
I’ve drunk all types and brands of coffee. From Cajun bitters to Alaskan boil. Atmosphere has a much to do with the flavor of coffee as anything else. A cup of joe around a frosty, early morning campfire is hard to beat. Then again, a cup of coffee in the coffee shop some mornings is mighty fine too.
I finally found the brew that mimics coffee shop coffee pretty close. It’s Tasters Instant Colombian. Good stuff! BTW I don’t care much for lattés. I find the coffee just a touch too bitter although I like mocha or a vanilla with frozen yogurt with a more conventional coffee.
I personally prefer the taste of the darker espresso roasts. something about the more heavily roasted beans brings out the deep rich flavor.
the absolute worst tasting coffee is Denny’s decaf, it sits too long because fewer people drink it, and they serve this nasty stuff. Even adding cream it isn’t a rich tan color, it’s grey. Yuk.
I used to be a Folgers/Maxwell House/whatever’s cheapest at the grocery store kind of gal… until I started working in a coffee shop. Over that year, I learned more about coffee and the processes and roasting methods (and the fact that decaf coffee still does have caffeine!) and how to actually “taste” coffee… I’m amazed how far I’ve come! Now I cannot drink the “grocery store brands”. I used to laugh at people like myself all the time… I mean come on, it’s just a cup of coffee, right? Wrong! Call me a connoisseur, call me a snob… call me crazy if you will, but what those poor beans go through really does affect the quality of a cup of coffee.
Hummm, I had thought the same for a while “all coffee is the same”, but I think that is wrong. In my oppionon there is two classes of coffee Folgers and the other stuff. Now within the ‘other stuff’ its all up to your personal judgment, what you like and what you don’t like.
My o2 cents
I love coffee from a french press, even the cheapest beans will taste ok if they are made the right way. One of my favorite strong coffees is Jack Daniel brand, I also love Kona from Hawaii, but i can rarely get the real thing. I like my coffee strong but smooth, and a dark roast. I don’t like it when in trying to make drip coffee strong, people use more scoops, it makes it taste almost dirty. Thanks for explaining decaff to us MIke! I don’t drink it much though…
There seems to be a little know fact pertaining to coffee.
Studies have shown that coffee helps to make you smarter, especially if you are a avid coffee drinker (which I am). I’m not trying to say that I am smarter then anyone else but it sure makes ME feel good know that I am smarter then before. I am advocate (though not offically) for the brand
Chock Full of Nuts- The City blend. It has a round smooth flavor. It simpley delicious. One additional bit of information,
although it’s not as potenent as the drug Ritalin, caffiene which is also a drug
that can help some people to concentrate a bit harder then without it. I say, “Yea, for caffiene!”
For me every coffee(cup of coffee) is different and i can be very impatient if i feel(have)…bad coffee…
Coffee has different pH,so you can feel it.Another thing is the way you doing (preparing) your coffee,that’s why i am loving my french vanilla coffee with milk(steamy hot milk) at home.
Coffee does not affect my sleepy time at all ,BUT i always start and finish my day with Black tea(with lemon or milk,or honey),all the time …between,i drink coffee or hot chocolate….always with hot milk(20-30%)
Despite caffeine’s widespread use, most medical texts have no guidelines for intake.
But those are strictly standards remember – not FDA Regulations which surprised me. No such United States FDA rules seem to exist which surprised me.
Though there are International standards which state decaf to be 97% caffeine free
As well as EU standards which are a little stricter at 99.9%.
I also read Starbucks had ONE Decaf Coffee in particular that actual has – are you ready? – 36% of caffeine!? That sounds much more like a lower caffeinated coffee, but in no way a DE-Caffeinated coffee.
But as in life as a whole…
I don’t make the rules here, just occasionally follow them
And if more info is wanted… Read onward. I have included more information and actual milligrams.
According to a Dr. Bruce Goldberger, PHD:
5 cups to 10 cups of decaf coffee through out your day easily can reach the same levels in a cup or two of regular coffee with your regular amount of caffeine.”
A scary thought considering there are people like my Father who are allergic to caffeine. Yup, straight allergic. It gives him terrible Migraines with the flashing lights and all. So if he happens to get Starbucks Decaf with that 36% of caffeine, well he’d be in trouble.
Flavored Coffees – Flavored Decaf Coffees – tend to have a higher amount of caffeine in general.
Decafs included.
As well as Instant Coffees in general as seen below:
I have also included the results of a recent study, conducted by U.F. Researchers.
They set out to conduct a two-phase study designed to gauge just how much caffeine is likely to turn up in decaffeinated coffees.
- First they purchased 10 16-ounce decaffeinated drip-brewed coffee beverages from nine national chains and/or local coffee houses… Testing
them for caffeine content.
Caffeine was isolated from the coffee samples and measured.
* Every single serving (but One!… Folgers Coffee Crystals Instant Decaf )
* ALL others tested contained caffeine. Ranging from 8.6 mg to 13.9 mg.
In comparison:
An 8-ounce cup of DRIP-BREWED Coffee typically contains 85 mg. of caffeine!
In the study’s second phase, scientists analyzed 12 samples of Starbucks Decaf Brewed Coffees and their Decaffeinated Espressos, all were sampled from a single store.
The espresso decafs contained 3 mg to 15.8 mg of caffeine per shot, while the Brewed Decaf Coffees had caffeine concentrations ranging from 12 to 13.4 mg per 16-ounce serving.
If you’re sick of decaf, but are looking to cut back on caffeine, try Low-Caffeine coffees. The best one I’ve tried so far is called Passiona by Trung Nguyen. It is pretty inexpensive and tastes like regular coffee. From my understanding, the farmers are choosing beans that have a naturally low caffeine count, rather than chemically stripping caffeine from the bean. For more info, check their website:
http://www.trung-nguyen-online.com/about-passiona-coffee.php