Decaffeination

Decaffeination

• The removal of caffeine from coffee beans, cocoa, tea leaves, and other caffeine-containing materials. 
• Decaffeinated drinks contain typically 1–2% of the original caffeine content, and sometimes as much as 20%.
• Process
• Various methods can be used for decaffeination of coffee. 
• These methods take place prior to roasting and may use organic solvents such as dichloromethane or ethyl acetate, supercritical CO2, or water to extract caffeine from the beans, while leaving flavour precursors in as close to their original state as possible
• e.g., The first commercially successful decaffeination process was invented by German merchant Ludwig Roselius and co-workers in 1903, after Ludwig observed that a freight of coffee beans accidentally soaked in sea water had lost most of their caffeine content without losing much of their flavour