How do you tell which decaf coffees are made with water or chemicals?!
Answers: I've heard that there are 2 processes for making decaf, either with water or chemicals.
The organic decaffeination process doesn't use chemicals. Most regular grocery stores carry a selection of organic decaf coffees.
(so there IS a way to tell when chemicals are used.... buy organic. You benefit in numerous ways.)
The word Decaf is deceiving! They use chemicals to mask the caffeine in coffee, it doesn't take it out. I have not heard of using water to do this, they may use water but they still need to use some chemicals. I don't think you can tell which method they use. Just drink regular coffee and use moderation to keep your caffeine levels low.
The ones that use chemicals won't advertise that fact.
The ones that use water will denote that differentiator
Good question. You are right there is more than one way to decaff coffee. The person who said it's just masked is wrong. The first way is to use solvents but I don't know if anyone is still using this method. It's old technology and most coffee packagers are too afraid of negative consumer reaction. The second way is to use a water extraction. It turns out that caffeine is soluble in water and so they pass water through a bed of green beans until the caffeine is extracted. Actually the caffeine is quite valuable and can be recovered and sold. I know Maxwell House uses this process. There is a third way using high pressure carbon dioxide which is a liquid at high pressure and works just like a solvent but when its returned to atmospheric pressure it turns into a gas. It's used in Europe but I don't know if anyone here in the States uses it because it is very expensive. To answer your question directly there is not way to tell completely because there is no ingredient line on coffee. Your best hope is name brand coffees. I've worked for a coffee company and can tell you there is a lot of misinformation floating around about coffee.
PhD Food Chemistry and Nutrition.
Most decaf coffees are produced by washing the beans with methylene chloride, it is a harmless food safe chemical that only remains in slight trace amounts after processing. Some people are sensitive to the slightly "sweet" taste it leaves in coffee. The caffiene molecules rise as foam to the top of the bath and are scraped off, dried and sold to places like Pepsi and Coca-Cola to caffienate their soft drinks. Decaf coffee prepped this way usually has .08% of the caffiene of regular.
Swiss water processing continually washes the beans in changes of fresh water until the caffiene is literally rinsed from the bean, although there is no chemical used, it takes 50,000 gallons + of fresh water to remove the caffiene from about 500 lbs of coffee. Decaf coffee prepped this way usually has about .15% of the caffiene of regular.
If you go to a reputable perveyor of coffee (Peet's, Starbucks, etc...), they should be able to tell you which process they use. I know Starbucks only has one Swiss water process (Decaf Komodo Dragon), but Peet's has a bunch...Good luck!