So what happens when for health reasons you are told to cut down on the coffee? There are so many reasons these days why you might need to cut down on your caffeine intake, perhaps you are pregnant, or suffering from a heart condition that makes excessive caffeine consumption unwise. As a coffee connoisseur the idea of drinking decaf leaves you cold, but when it is a choice between your health and your coffee you probably don't have much choice. To make your transition easier, there are few things to consider before you stock up on decaf beans.
Be prepared to spend a little extra on high quality decaf to get a decent taste. There are various processes used to remove caffeine from coffee beans and the most economical uses chemicals to accomplish this. Although the chemicals are washed away, small traces can remain that impact the taste of the resulting brew. Some of the good coffee flavor can also be washed away with the caffeine.
Some more expensive decaf beans go through the Swiss method, where the beans are heated with water and then passed through activated charcoal, which bonds with the caffeiene, leaving the beans with reduced caffeiene but the majority of their original taste.
Another, more recent addition to these processes is known as Hevla. Coffee beans are steamed at high pressure and the caffeiene removed, without any real impact on the flavor. The use of this process is becoming more widespread, but is unlikely to be used on the standard decaf for sale in your local supermarket.
As well as checking the manufacturing process when buying decaf coffee, you should also have a careful look at the caffeine content. You may think you have been clever enough to find a great decaf that tastes just like regular coffee, for a reasonable price. You may in fact find that the caffeine content is only slightly reduced, hence the taste, and you can probably do yourself almost as much damage with this as with a regular brew. Also beware of drinking decaf coffee when you are out and about. Because the same machines are used to make decaf as regular coffee, you might unintentionally be getting a large dose of caffeine anyway.
If you really can't stomach changing to decaf, you could just reduce the amount of coffee that you drink and really savor those occasional cups. You could also switch to a darker roast such as an Italian roast, popular for espresso making, which is naturally low in caffeine because most of it has burnt off during the roasting process.
So don't despair when your doctor gives you the bad news. Just because you have to cut down on caffeine, this does not mean that you have to give up your coffee altogether.
There has been an endless, on-going debate on whether or not decaf should be accepted as a healthy part of the coffee drink. As the controversy still continues, researchers and specialists are always coming up with methods to extract the unwanted caffeine from the actual drink. Though research suggests that an individual often cannot judge the difference between a decaf and regular coffee, yet it helps to know what exactly is done for the purpose, especially to remove the harmful effects.
The Methods
Most commonly, after they are picked, the berries are repeatedly rinsed so that the outer fruit softens up for removal and ultimately the removal of the flesh. Another common method used for removing the ingredient of caffeine from coffee is the treatment with hot water, which is further followed by rinsing in methylene chloride. However, specialists on the subject insist that when a taste difference is noticed in a decaf, it is not due to the actual absence or presence of caffeine. Apart from the commercial mechanisms that are used to remove caffeine, choices are also available to the individuals to do the task on their own. As you search the market, you will be able to find the darker roasts which are less acidic and claim to be carrying a lesser amount of caffeine. For individuals who are bent upon cutting down on the caffeine intake, the blends of decaf and regular coffee are a good option.
Instead, it is a result of the remaining processing chemicals and how effectively did they eliminate the ingredients that produced the flavor. Meanwhile, actual chemical removal of caffeine from the green beans that are unroasted starts when these are warmed up in steam or just hot water. This is basically done to open the bean's pores. Following this, the beans are washed in methylene chloride, which sticks to the caffeine and is ultimately flushed away.
On the other hand, in the Swiss method, also an alternate method, beans are immersed in hot water for a number of hours. The caffeine is then removed as the water is filtered through charcoal. Overall, the manufacturers generally opt for the first method as it proves to be more cost-effective.
Other Choices
Apart from the commercial mechanisms that are used to remove caffeine, choices are also available to the individuals to do the task on their own. As you search the market, you will be able to find the darker roasts which are less acidic and claim to be carrying a lesser amount of caffeine. For individuals who are bent upon cutting down on the caffeine intake, the blends of decaf and regular coffee are a good option.
Such an increased level of debate that surrounds the subject is bound to lead to the development of more decaf products in the near future. Since caffeine carries a natural bitter taste, it is very easy to develop a keen fondness for the particular taste, making it all the more difficult to adopt the decaf variety.
Both Robert B. Carlton & Sushil Kumar are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Robert B. Carlton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Coffee Advantages. Robert Carlton often writes summaries on ideas associated to espresso and espresso. His comments on