How do they remove the caffeine from decaffeinated coffee.

Question

Coffee beans have caffeine naturally in them. How is the caffeine removed from them to create decaffeinated coffee?

In: 3655

Answer 1

There are a bunch of different methods of decaffeination but the ELI5 version is as follows. Either

1. unroasted coffee beans are exposed to a chemical solvent that only bonds to caffeine and not to other chemical compounds present in coffee
2. unroasted coffee beans have more or less every chemical compound removed from them (typically via water), the caffeine is isolated and removed, and then the remaining compounds are re-introduced to the now “empty” unroasted coffee.

Process number one is more efficient and generally makes for better tasting coffee but uses the kinds of chemicals present in paint thinners. Process number two is less efficient and results in worse tasting coffee but uses no chemicals beyond water.