How is decaffeinated soda made?

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My BIL, who thinks he knows everything, tried to convince me that when soda is made, they add caffeine to it, and when they make decaf, they chemically remove it. This seems rather counter-intuitive to me if they add caffeine, then why not just make a run without adding it? But since he ‘knows everything’ he swears that is how it is made. Can someone how true or not this is?

In: Chemistry

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kinda both.

Cola sodas were originally made with kola nuts, which provided flavor and caffeine.

In that case, creating a decaffe version would require removing the caffeine from the nuts.

Most modern colas, including Coca cola, use synthetic flavors in place of natural kola nuts, so they don’t have to decaffeinate them. They just don’t add caffeine.

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