Decaffeinated

Roasting decaffeinated beans is a little challenging as you don't hear first crack because the cellular structure of the bean has been changed through the decaffeination process.  Accordingly, you must instead using your other senses to monitor the process and get the result you are looking for.

There are several methods of decaffeination.

• EA Sugar Cane (Descafecol) decaffeination combines high mountain spring water and natural Ethyl Acetate (EA).  EA is present in every coffee cherry (as well as many fruits and vegetables).  The EA used for this process is derived from a mix of acetic acid (vinegar) and a natural extract distilled from the sugar cane, blackberries and beets.  The coffee is first steamed to open the pores on a cellular level, then rinsed in EA to remove the caffeine.  The EA is removed through evaporation.
• Mountain Water Process (Descamex) decaffeination is non chemical process.  The coffee is soaked and washed in high mountain spring water, with the resulting solution passed through a caffeine filter before being reintroduced to the coffee.  
• Swiss Water Process decaffeination uses GCE (which was produced by soaking coffee in water and running the remaining solution through carbon filters to remove the caffiene).  The coffee is soaked in a small amount of GCE (which regenerates by adding small amounts of clean water).  The caffeine leaves the beans, leaving the flavour compounds in place. and a small amount is used for the ongoing decaffeination process.  usedworks through diffusion.  The green coffee beans are soaked in water until the caffience and flavour compounds are extracted.  The solution is ben run through a carbon filter to remove the caffiene, leaving behind 
• Methylene Chloride Process decaffeination is thought by some in the coffee industry to maintain the coffee flavour better than other processes.  It involved soaking the beans in hot water to extract the caffeine.  The beans are then removed from the water and the methylene chlorise solvent is added to bond with the caffeine.  The resulting compound is skimmed from the surface and the beans are returned to reabsorb the liquid.  While the FDA (in the United States) has determined that methlyene chloride is safe for use, we do not stock coffee decaffeinated using this method.