It is safe to say that the cof­fee indus­try today is almost unrec­og­niz­able from the cof­fee indus­try thirty years ago.  Today, the indus­try loves to com­pare cof­fee and wine, as a nod to coffee’s com­plex taste pro­files and dif­fi­culty to mas­ter. The dif­fer­ence between today and thirty years ago is, cof­fee is no longer enjoyed solely for its caf­feine con­tent and is now widely con­sumed for the plea­sure of its taste. However, this change in con­sump­tion of decaf­feinated cof­fee has out­paced the change in per­cep­tion, and those in the cof­fee indus­try still largely over­look the need to offer that taste expe­ri­ence inde­pen­dently from the caf­feine. Bob Weagle of Swiss Water Decaffeinated notes, “too many peo­ple believe coffee’s cre­den­tials come from caf­feine,” and as a result there is a huge mar­ket poten­tial that is cur­rently being ignored.

So what is behind this lag in decaf adop­tion by the indus­try? Demetrio Arandia Muguira of Descafeinadores Mexicanos SA de CV explains, “many years ago sev­eral roast­ers offered their reg­u­lar cof­fee at the same price of the decaf and that forced them to use lower qual­i­ties on their decaf so that hurt the con­sump­tion.” Today how­ever, advance­ments in decaf­feina­tion tech­nol­ogy have enhanced the decaf expe­ri­ence to the point where many con­sumers are unable to tell the dif­fer­ence between a caf­feinated cup of cof­fee and a decaf­feinated one. Muguira explains, “in a recent poll dur­ing the SCAA show, we found that on a blind test of two cups of cof­fee only 58% (of peo­ple) were able to iden­tify the decaf cof­fee, and from that same cup 48% liked the decaf cup more than the reg­u­lar.” It is a mis­con­cep­tion, explains Swiss Water’s Bob Weagle, that “if it’s decaf cof­fee it must taste bad since if you remove the caf­feine you also remove the fla­vor … Our inter­nal R&D team cre­ated our pro­pri­etary car­bon regen­er­a­tion tech­nol­ogy that micro­man­ages the frac­tal geom­e­try of our car­bon. This regen­er­a­tion allows our car­bon to be very spe­cific in cap­tur­ing caf­feine mol­e­cules, leav­ing valu­able fla­vor and body com­po­nents untouched.” Similarly, Maximus Coffee Group notes on their web­site that they have a “pre­cise process for decaf­feina­tion, remov­ing only the caf­feine in the short­est amount of time, leav­ing all fla­vor and aroma com­po­nents intact.” Essentially, the days of ter­ri­ble tast­ing decaf are over, and with the abil­ity to pro­duce decaf­feinated cof­fee that is very true to the orig­i­nal fla­vor comes the oppor­tu­nity to offer great decaf to caffeine-conscious consumers.

While the avail­abil­ity of great tast­ing decaf is a rea­son to recon­sider any prej­u­dices one may have against the prod­uct, it is also impor­tant to note that there is actu­ally a grow­ing profit poten­tial for decaf cof­fee. While in the past the term “caffeine-conscious cof­fee con­sumer” referred to only a minute por­tion of end-users in gen­eral, the gen­er­a­tion that enjoyed the blos­som­ing of spe­cialty cof­fee is aging, and as such decaf­feina­tion is becom­ing increas­ingly impor­tant. The point, says Bob Weagle, is that “decaf presents an oppor­tu­nity for growth in the indus­try.” He con­tin­ues “I have had some con­ver­sa­tions with peo­ple in the indus­try where peo­ple have told me they believe if they don’t offer decaf peo­ple will still buy their cof­fee. What they don’t under­stand is that a dual-user may, but an indi­vid­ual who is sen­si­tive to caf­feine won’t.” In this respect, it is immensely impor­tant that roast­ers, retail­ers and cof­fee shop own­ers offer decaf­feinated cof­fee if they are inter­ested in max­i­miz­ing their prof­its. The vital thing is not just to offer a decaf option, but to offer a high-quality decaf option.  Bob Weagle com­ments “you are judged by all the cof­fee you offer, not just your reg­u­lar cof­fee. So if you serve bad decaf, that is going to impact how peo­ple view your brand altogether.”

In sum, the days of look­ing at decaf as caf­feinated coffee’s ugly step­sis­ter are over. The mar­ket for decaf­feinated cof­fee is grow­ing, and that growth will con­tinue along­side the expan­sion of the spe­cialty cof­fee indus­try. As the Third Wavers and Gen X’ers, Y’ers, and so on, age, demand will grow for high-end cof­fee with­out the caf­feine. Roasters, retail­ers and cof­fee shop own­ers should take notice, and ensure they are not miss­ing out on poten­tial prof­its from the decaf-seeking con­sumer base. Just remem­ber, your brand is only as good as your weak­est prod­uct. It is imper­a­tive to seek out high-quality decaf. Many of today’s decaf­feina­tion com­pa­nies pro­vide a prod­uct on par with its reg­u­larly caf­feinated coun­ter­part, so hold any decaf you con­sider offer­ing to the same stan­dards you would your reg­u­lar cof­fee. If you wouldn’t want to drink it, it is safe to say your cus­tomers won’t either.