Coffee is good, so good that you can drink it at any time of the day. Need a kick of energy? Have a delicious cup of Cameroon Boyo or Sumatra Mandheling (or any of our delicious coffees, really). Want the delicious flavor of Joe’s but not the caffeine? Look no further. Our decaffeinated coffees preserve the beans’ incredible flavors minus the caffeine, and this is thanks to the Swiss Water Process.
What is the Swiss Water Process?
Swiss Water ® is a decaffeination process that uses pure water to remove caffeine from the coffee bean. This gentle process is 100% chemical free and is done in small batches. Water, temperature, and time are the elements that influence this process in order to create a final product that 99/9% caffeine free and ready for roasting.
The Swiss Water Process (SWP) happens in four steps:
Step 1:
The facility receives specialty coffee beans from various regions of the world. These beans are then cleaned and hydrated with pure, local water to prepare them for the decaffeination process.
Step 2:
Internally, the SWP facility develops a Green Coffee Extract (GCE) that is introduced to the beans. SWP says the following about step 2: “Caffeine ventures out on its own, away from the coffee beans into the GCE until the ratio of soluble compounds in the GCE to the compounds in the coffee reaches the point of equilibrium. Caffeine and GCE flow continuously through our proprietary carbon filters until all the caffeine is trapped and separated from the GCE. Then the GCE is refreshed so that it can be used again to remove more caffeine.”
Step 3:
The coffee is monitored for the following ten hours, including the caffeine levels in each batch.
Step 4:
The decaffeinated beans are shipped to roasters, in this case, Joe’s.
So, you see? Care is placed in every single process that takes place right before you make yourself a delicious cup of Joe’s. From the communities of farmers, who work diligently and carefully to provide the best coffee beans in the world, to organizations like Swiss Water Process, who delicately leave coffee beans 99.9% caffeine free, to our plant, where we roast your coffee when is ordered to ensure you receive a product that is fresh and flavorful.
Sources: Swiss Water Process