Swiss Water® Decaffeination Process

Our Peruvian Decaf uses a Swiss Water decaffeination process to remove the caffeine from the coffee. I get a lot of questions about what this process is and how it compares to other decaffeination processes.

First Let’s briefly look at some other decaffeination processes.

1. Triglyceride Method: Beans are soaked in hot water. They are moved to another container and are then soaked in coffee oils obtained from ground coffee. After several hours of high temperature, the triglycerides in the oils remove the caffeine. The beans are then washed and dried. [2]
2. Supercritical CO2 process: In this process, green coffee beans are steamed and then added to a high pressure container. A mixture of water and liquid CO2 is circulated through the container at 150°F. Caffeine dissolves into the CO2. The caffeine is scrubbed from the CO2 with additional water. [1]
3. Organic Solvent Process:  Two methods here.
1. Direct: In the direct organic solvent process, unroasted (green) beans are first steamed and then rinsed with a solvent (e.g. methylene dichloride or ethyl acetate).
2. Indirect: In the indirect method, beans are first soaked in hot water for several hours, in essence making a strong pot of coffee. Then the beans are removed and either dichloromethane or ethyl acetate is used to extract the caffeine from the water. As in other methods, the caffeine can then be separated from the organic solvent by simple evaporation. [2]

Swiss Water® Process

The Swiss Water® Process is environmentally friendly and chemical free.

First step begins even before we even begin the decaffeination process. We start with some incredible beans source from small farms in the northern border of Peru. To get a good decaffeinated coffee, you have to start with good beans.

The Swiss Water process is one of the most natural ways to extract caffeine from the beans without added chemicals.

We ship our beans to the Swiss Water® processing plant where the caffeine is removed and shipped back to us for us to roast on demand when you place your order.

Swiss Water®

The beans begin their journey by being cleaned and hydrated with pure, local water to prepare them for caffeine removal.

The Swiss Water® developed Green Coffee Extract (GCE) is introduced to the beans and caffeine removal begins. Caffeine ventures out on its own, away from the coffee beans into the GCE. Caffeine and GCE flow continuously through their proprietary carbon filters until all the caffeine is trapped and separated from the GCE.

For the next 10 hours, the Swiss Water team continuously monitors the process and caffeine levels. They monitor time, gauge temperature controls, and check the levels on the GCE flow. The result of this attention to detail is worth it -- 99.9% caffeine-free coffee.[3]

Here are a couple of videos from Swiss Water to help.

For more information, visit https://www.swisswater.com

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[1] "How Do They Do It?: S7 E15 - Decaf Coffee; Smoked Salmon; Water Jets". How Do They Do It?. 1 December 2013.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decaffeination

[3] https://www.swisswater.com/our-process/