Decaf Coffee

Decaffeinated coffee

Coffee purists will argue that decaffeinated coffee isn't "real" coffee. Nonetheless, there's plenty of demand from those who want good-tasting coffee with less caffeine.

The decaffeination process occurs before beans are roasted, or still in their "green" state. Caffeine is an odorless, crystalline substance with a very slight bitter taste that gets lost in a coffee's perfume. So the isolation of caffeine doesn't theoretically alter a coffee's taste. The challenge arises when attempting to remove the caffeine without ruining the other factors that contribute to the resulting coffee's flavor, like acidity and body. There are a few different processes used to remove caffeine from coffee beans, and experts disagree about which method most maintains the integrity of the coffee. Most experts say that factors other than removing caffeine contribute more to taste, including the quality of the green coffee before the process, the care of roasting and the coffee's freshness.

Despite which method is used, decaffeinated coffee can be first-rate, as determined by Consumer Reports, which was the only blind taste testing of supermarket coffees that included decaffeinated brews. As Kenneth Davids of CoffeeReview.com says, the stakes are higher. Taste, quality and character are even more important when a caffeine fix isn't a criterion of satisfaction. Though Consumer Reports was the only one of our main sources that included decaffeinated coffees in their taste tests, we did fine some individual consumer and CoffeeReview.com write-ups that corroborated data from Consumer Reports. We found good scores for Eight O'Clock 100% Colombian Decaf (*est. $5 for a 12-ounce bag). Consumer reviews also support Eight O'Clock decaf as a good-tasting whole-bean Columbian decaf.

Though CoffeeReview.com hasn't conducted a report specifically on decaffeinated supermarket coffees, Kenneth Davids and editors did conduct a taste test of specialty decaffeinated coffees in which Davids concluded that Colombian coffees were the best quality decaf brews. Another noteworthy decaffeinated coffee was hailed by Davids as an "impressive price-to-value achievement" -- Wal-Mart's Great Value 100% Arabica (*est. $2.50 per pound, ground).Davids characterizes Great Value decaf as a sweet and deep coffee with semi-sweet chocolate and cherry tones. He does, however, caution that an Arabica coffee at this value price may short-change the workers who toil to deliver the product. Decaffeinated Fair Trade coffee is also available, but we found few reviews on these.