Decaf Swiss Water Process - The Weekly Grind 2017

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Weekly Grind!

Decaf, Swiss Water Process

You may know that all of our decaf coffees are certified Swiss Water Processed, but what exactly does that mean? Well, most decaffeinating processes out there rely on the use of chemicals to directly or indirectly extract the caffeine from the beans. Swiss Water Process, however, is chemical free, relying instead on an environmentally friendly and organically certified method involving the power of water and heat.

According to Coffee Confidential:

"It begins by soaking a batch of beans in very hot water in order to dissolve the caffeine. The water is then drawn off and passed through an activated charcoal filter. The porosity of this filter is sized to only capture larger caffeine molecules, while allowing smaller oil and flavor molecules to pass through it.

Consequently we end up with beans with no caffeine and no flavor in one tank, and caffeine-free “flavor charged” water (aka “Green Coffee Extract”) in another tank."

This extract is the key to the genius of this process. The flavor-rich water can now be used for soaking instead, and since the extract is already saturated with flavor-ingredients, the new beans' flavors will no longer dissolve, meaning the caffeine is removed from the new batch without sacrificing taste! Check out the details in the video below, or click here to see an in-depth animation of the entire process.

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