Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Food & Pisco

Pisco < Features | Pisco Recipes | Share a Pisco Cocktails| Top 5 Cocktails | Bars in Peru | Top 5 Bars

Food / Feature Articles

By Melanie Bayly

The other day a question was raised: how do they remove caffeine from the coffee bean? It stuck with me for a couple of days and every time I drink coffee I think about it. So I decided to find out what decaf really means.

Decaf coffee has gained popularity in Peru, but still we are reluctant to drink it even though it tastes the same. However we do drink plenty of decaf sodas. But the question still remains: how do remove caffeine from coffee? And more importantly, do they remove it all?

Caffeine is found in many things other then coffee for example chocolate, tea, soft drinks and even some medicines.

How does it affect your body?

Caffeine is best known for its ability to wake one up. When caffeine is consumed by a person it mildly stimulates the nervous and cardiovascular system. It affects the brain in different ways: it elevates mood, decreases fatigue and increases attentiveness. Therefore, the person can think more clearly and work for a longer period of time. In the cardiovascular area, it increases heart rate, blood flow, respiratory rate and metabolic rate for some hours.

One unknown fact about caffeine is that it’s a diuretic. However, it is not clear whether it can cause dehydration as well. It may also cause your body to lose calcium. However, a nice cup of coffee in the morning is sublime.

How does it happen?

There are several methods for removing caffeine from coffee beans.

Methylene Chloride also known as the European process

The green (unroasted) beans are placed in a rotating drum and softened by steam for about 30 minutes. They are then repeatedly rinsed with methylene chloride, which removes the caffeine from the beans.

Then it is drained away and the beans are steamed a second time so the remaining solvent can evaporate. Finally, air or vacuum drying removes excess moisture from the decaffeinated beans. Virtually no solvent residue remains after roasting the beans.

I should also add this process provides the best tasting cup of coffee. It can be used in large scales and it is the cheapest.

Swiss water process

A method developed by the Swiss as an alternative to the Traditional Method.

The beans are soaked in hot water to open their pours, after the caffeine rich water runs through activated charcoal filters to extract the caffeine. Then the decaffeinated water is reunited with the beans to try and reabsorb some of the flavor compounds.

This process leaves lesser flavors in the coffee beans. It is a more expensive method and fewer types of coffee can be used. However, it is the most organic process.

Ethyl Acetate and CO2 Methods

The process begins when green coffee beans soak in a heated water and coffee solution, which gradually draws off the caffeine and flavor elements. The solution is separated from the beans and treated with ethyl acetate, a compound that absorbs caffeine.

A steaming process removes the ethyl acetate from the water. The water is then returned to the beans, which reabsorbs the flavor elements. Finally, the beans are dried.

After being steamed, the green beans are immersed in carbon dioxide at a high temperature and pressure (at a high enough pressure any gas will become liquid.) It coats the beans to extract the caffeine. The carbon dioxide is then removed. The solvent residue remaining on the beans evaporates when the beans return to room temperature.

These two are even more expensive and leave the beans with much less flavor.

Now that we know how caffeine is removed, we should make you aware that it is not removed completely. None of these processes above mentioned are harmful. They only sound like it.

This is why some people who drink decaf still feel the caffeine effects. My suggestion is if the doctor says don’t drink caffeine, stay away from decaf, but if you are trying to quit caffeine you can start by drinking decaf.