Poor decaffeinated coffee! Some people think it's not even coffee. Or accuse it of harming our health. Or of having an unpleasant taste. But are all these accusations justified?
Some of these, stem from the fact that in the past decaffeinated was oftenqualitatively inferiorto regular coffee. This is because processes were not optimized to the current level of technology and there was a tendency to decaffeinate low-quality raw coffee. In addition, the roasting of decaffeinated was conducted with the same parameters as regular coffee, while actually requiring different roasting curves and final colors.
But how has the history evolved and how is decaffeinated coffee processed today?
First of all, it must be said that to make a coffee bean"decaffeinated," caffeine must be extracted from it. By law, the level ofcaffeinein the bean must drop from an average of about 2 percent of the total toless than 0.1 percent.
In the decaffeination process, one must keep in mind that the raw coffee bean from which decaffeinated coffee is derived is thesameas regular coffee. It ripens, is harvested and dried in the same way. Next, you can choose from four different types of solvents,noneof which ever pose adangerto the consumer'shealthbecause they are extensively tested by health authorities:
- ethyl acetate
- dichloromethane
- carbon dioxide (CO2).
- water
Among them, carbon dioxide is the solvent that best keepsintacttheorganoleptic characteristicsof the starting coffee. And it is what we use to create ourMasaba Blue.
Whichever extracting medium you decide to use, the first step is to treat the coffee with water and steam so that the beans swell. By doing so, their cellular structures become spaced apart, allowing the caffeine to be better extracted.
Next comes theextraction stage: the coffee is subjected to the action of one of four solvents, whichcaptures the caffeineanddrags it outof the bean.
In conclusion, we can choose to drink decaffeinated with the expectation of drinkinggood coffee, comparable in taste, aroma and color to regular coffee. And this without fearing for our health.
A good alternative for people who suffer from the exciting effects of caffeine, or even for people who love coffee so much that they drink too much of it...