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Espresso Elucidation

More on Decaffeination

I've written about decaffeination in PODcast before — perhaps more than some people would like. Some coffee drinkers seem to feel that decaffeinated coffee is morally reprehensible. Well, I like my espresso and I like to drink it late in the evening. If I drink caffeinated espresso it will affect my sleep (oddly I can fall asleep OK but I'll be wide awake at 4 AM...). A lot of people are sensitive to caffeine, including cardio patients, so decaf has its adherents.

This article concerns decaffeination methods and toxicity. There are generally four solvents of decaffeination: water, ethyl acetate, carbon dioxide, and dichloromethane.

The first solvent, water, is the basis of the famous Swiss Water Process, which is very expensive. We currently only sell one coffee decaffeinated by this process: Aloha Island. No chemicals are used in the Swiss Water Process. It is available from only one company.

Ethyl acetate, a substance found in fruit and wine, is used in the Direct and Indirect Methods of decaffeination. These methods are sometimes referred to as "natural decaffeination," because ethyl acetate occurs naturally in fruit, or even more misleadingly as "water processed," because water is used in the initial phase of the Indirect Method.

I am informed that carbon dioxide (or supercritical fluid extraction) decaffeination requires a large capital expenditure, limiting the popularity of this method. Carbon dioxide, is of course, non-toxic.

The last solvent, dichloromethane, is perhaps the most common form of decaffeination in Italy. The Italian government limits the residual dichloromethane in roasted coffee to 2 parts per million (2 mg/kg). The USA limit for dichloromethane is 5 times higher (10 mg/kg).

Beans processed with dichloromethane are washed with hot water to remove the chemical. As dichloromethane evaporates at only 104 F, it is easy to remove it without damaging the coffee. (As with ethyl acetate methods, reference to this use of water sometimes misleads customers (as well as distributors and retailers) into thinking the beans were decaffeinated with the Swiss Water Process.) Note also that the act of roasting the coffee will cause any remaining dichloromethane to evaporate. Therefore, once roasted, there should be no detectable residue of dichloromethane.

I have been contacted by customers concerned about the safety of decaffeinated coffee, in particular for expectant mothers. I cannot make this judgment call for you, but based on my investigation, it would seem that decaffeination uses either a non-toxic solvent (water, CO2), a relatively non-toxic solvent (ethyl acetate), or the chemical dichloromethane, which is certain to evaporate before consumption, and at any rate, by law is held to very low concentrations in coffee roasted in Italy.

PodMerchant News

Our sea shipment from Italy is due in very shortly. We'll have Blucaffe' gift boxes and cases and Izzo Decaf back in stock.

PodMerchant Featured Product

People call us up all the time asking for advice on which pod to buy. I hesitate to simply say, "Drink coffee 'X' ," because different people like different things. For every coffee I think is great I've talked to customers who hated it and vice versa. However, I do make some exceptions for exceptional coffee. In this case, the coffee is Covim Caffe'.

Covim was brought to us by Philadelphia coffee magnate, Sergio Panu, formerly of Hausbrandt association. (Well, perhaps "magnate" is not quite the right word but let's go with that.) Sergio is importing the premium coffee, Covim Caffe', from his hometown of Genoa, Italy. Wasn't it in the movie Goodfellas that we were admonished, "don't get high on your own supply"? I'm afraid I'm drinking up too much of my own supply of Covim. This is a great coffee. It's all I feel like drinking these days.

In pods, Covim is available in 100% Arabica; Granbar — a 50/50 blend of Arabica/Robusta; and Orocrema — a 20/80 blend of Arabica/Robusta; (and decaf of course). All four offerings produce more crema than one usually gets from pods. As Robusta produces more crema than Arabica, this is part of the explanation, but not all of it, as even the Covim Arabica has a luxurious, silky, viscous layer of crema not usually produced from 100% Arabica pods. All four are mixtures of Arabica from Brasil Santos, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Santo Domingo, then blended with more or less Southeast Asian high-quality Robusta. The blend of South and Central American coffees is extraordinarily balanced and smooth.

If you want to try the full range of Covim Caffe' pods, you might consider our Covim Caffe' Espresso Pod Sampler. Six of each caffeinated pod and 3 of the decaf.

Visit their corporate website: www.covimcaffe.it

Visit the US importer's website: www.covimusa.com

See the Covim facility in Google Maps.

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That's all for this issue of the PODcast. Al buon gusto, salute!


Kevin Garrett, The PodMerchant.