Though decaf coffee may sound like an oxymoron, it is a great alternative for those who can’t have caffeine and those who want a cup of coffee but still want to sleep at night. But how exactly do you make coffee decaf? Your mind may first go to chemicals, which is one way to do it, but that is not the way we do it.
At Vienna we use a method called Swiss Water Process. The Swiss water process consists of two ingredients: Water and coffee. That’s it!
Here’s how it works:
Green (unroasted) coffee beans are soaked in hot water. The water draws out both the coffee flavor, and caffeine (coffee compounds). These bean are discarded and the water is ran through a filter that removes only the caffeine and leaves the coffee flavor compounds..
New green coffee beans are put into the coffee-saturated and caffeine free water. Since the water is saturated with coffee flavor, only the caffeine is drawn out of the beans. The beans are then roasted, ground, brewed, and enjoyed by you.
Though it sounds too simple to be true, this process actually removed 99.9% of the caffeine without using any chemicals! And, it doesn’t alter the flavor of the beans at all. Win-Win!
Here is a video that explains the process a little more in-depth.
