Did you know that many coffee companies use chemicals to remove the caffeine from their coffee?

Let’s face it, nobody wants chemicals in their coffee. At Numa Coffee we believe in doing things the right way. Creating a higher quality and better tasting coffee is better for our customers. That is why for our decaf roasts, we only use the Swiss Water Decaffeination process. The process requires more cost and time compared to using chemicals, but we believe it’s the right thing to do. Although the name sounds complicated, it’s actually quite simple.  The journey begins by having our green coffee shipped from its country of origin to the Swiss Water processing facility…that’s where the real “magic” will begin. By “magic”, we actually mean a highly monitored and scientific process. 🙂

Allow us to walk you through the process!

Step 1: Create GCE (green coffee extract).

Green coffee beans are soaked in pure water. This allows all the soluble solids within the bean (minus the caffeine) to create a pure extract.

Step 2: Prep the bean for the Swiss water process.

Before being decaffeinated, the green coffee is rehydrated to prepare for the optimal moisture level to achieve removal of the caffeine. This step also cleans the beans and removes other unwanted byproducts, such as silverskin and dirt particles.

Step 3: Remove the caffeine!

The GCE is then circulated around the green coffee for 8-10 hours, until .1% or less of the caffeine remains. A carbon filter system is utilized to remove the caffeine, and the carbon is then passed into a regeneration furnace to burn away the caffeine so that the carbon can be re-used.

Step 4: GCE is refreshed.

During the decaffeination process, the GCE is being refreshed and renewed. Close monitoring and testing are done so that the optimal health of the GCE can be maintained, therefore allowing the GCE to be used in more than 1 batch going through the process.

Step 5: Onward to Numa Coffee!

Once the process is complete, the decaffeinated beans get packaged and shipped to us at our roastery. Now when you place an order for your favorite decaf roast, we can go through our normal roasting process – only without the caffeine!

Next time you take a sip of one of our decaf coffees, just remember…the coffee beans that brewed it made quite the journey to give you just the perfect sip without all the zip.

 

Credit: Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc.