There used to be a time when it was easy to roast decaf­feinated cof­fee. Because the qual­ity of cof­fee being decaf­feinated was so poor, it did not mat­ter how you roasted it but dark was pre­ferred. After that, grind­ing it and putting it in a can hid it’s phys­i­cal defects. To find a spe­cialty cof­fee that was decaf­feinated was very rare. In the last decade, more high-end cof­fee is being sent to decaf­feina­tion plants thereby pro­duc­ing higher qual­ity spe­cialty, decaf­feinated coffee.

I am still not con­vinced there is a com­pelling rea­son to drink decaf­feinated cof­fee. If your Dr. says you should switch to decaf, I sug­gest you switch doc­tors!  If you are still going to switch, then the least that us roast­ers can do is to pro­vide you with the best decaf pos­si­ble. This will require learn­ing the best ways to treat decaf cof­fee in the roaster.

The con­sid­er­a­tions for roast­ing decaf­feinated cof­fee are dif­fer­ent from their con­ven­tional coun­ter­parts. As a roast­ing pro­fes­sional, you go through the same processes whether work­ing with decaf­feinated cof­fee or con­ven­tional cof­fee. While the fun­da­men­tal processes are the same, the nuances and the results can be very dif­fer­ent. For this arti­cle I have drawn from my own expe­ri­ences as well as called on some of the industry’s pro­fes­sion­als to describe some of the con­sid­er­a­tions for work­ing with decaf­feinated coffee.

Choosing the cof­fee
In the past, and still preva­lent today, the lower grade cof­fees are sent to be decaf­feinated. However, some great cof­fees are being sent to plants as well. Some roast­ers are even send­ing their own choices of cof­fees to be decaf­feinated. With as lit­tle as a sin­gle con­tainer, a roaster can choose a cof­fee that holds up to the strain of the decaf­feina­tion process and con­tin­ues to yield a fla­vor­ful cup. They can then send that to be processed as a decaf cof­fee. It tends to be the ‘high end’ or ‘acidic’ fla­vor notes such as orange, lemon and rasp­berry that get hurt the most and the softer fla­vors such as caramel and but­ter that do well. By select­ing a cof­fee that starts high in body with medium to low acid­ity you will find that the fla­vor pro­file remains very stable.

I did one blind tast­ing of con­ven­tional vs. Swiss Water Process decaf­feinated cof­fee from the same lot where I actu­ally (by a ¼ point) pre­ferred the decaf ver­sion of one the cof­fees. The cof­fee was a nice one to begin with, and I was gen­uinely impressed with the results.

If you are not send­ing your own cof­fee out, then you should ask for sam­ples from the com­pany doing the decaf­feina­tion so you can score it your­self before order­ing. A mis­take that is often made by novice green buy­ers is com­par­ing the decaf cof­fee to the con­ven­tional cof­fee in your inven­tory. Remember, just because you have a Guatemala Huehuetenango on the shelf does not mean that the decaf ver­sion of the same grow­ing area will have the same char­ac­ter­is­tics any more than two estates in the same area pro­duce the same fla­vors. Rate the cof­fee on its own mer­its. If it presents well in the cup then it should be pur­chased. If it does not, then don’t! But don’t pass on it if it tastes dif­fer­ent than your con­ven­tional version.

Roasting the Coffee
Decaf cof­fee acts dif­fer­ently than con­ven­tional cof­fee in the roaster. It should, there­fore, be treated dif­fer­ently when devel­op­ing pro­files. Don’t assume that every decaf­feina­tion process has the same impact on the bean. The results are very dif­fer­ent and need to be con­sid­ered before roasting.

Jeff Chean of The Supreme Bean points out, “You can’t just mon­i­tor the bean tem­per­a­ture. It is going to crack at a dif­fer­ent temp than the con­ven­tional cof­fee.” He also points out, “The sec­ond crack is softer so you really have to pay atten­tion to the sound as well as the color.” Jeremy Raths of The Roastery gives those roast­ing decaf the fol­low­ing advice, “You need to sneak up on it with a smooth, low heat rise. Give it a long stretch between first and sec­ond crack.”

Both of the roast­ers above point out that a lower drop temp on decaf pre­vents tip­ping and allows you to develop the cof­fee more ‘gen­tly’. The point being that care­ful atten­tion placed on the pro­file can result in suc­cess­ful, fla­vor­ful cups. If you just roast it like your con­ven­tional cof­fee you will end up with scorched, bland decaf.

Single Origin or Blending?
I was always a sup­porter of blend­ing decaf. This came from deal­ing with bor­ing cup pro­files that were bet­ter as a sum of the parts. It also pro­tected me against lot changes, which can hap­pen more often in decaf. Then one day I was pre­sented with what the sales­man called, “A sin­gle vari­etal, estate, spe­cialty, decaf cof­fee.” Yeah right! And I have this high-speed rail project in Los Angeles that makes sense! But dang it! It WAS a good cup! I scored it an 83.5. I then had to rethink my ‘old ways’ and con­sider that good cof­fee in can equal good cof­fee out when it comes to decaf. I was then an advo­cate of sin­gle vari­etals in decaf.

A roaster should still blend for con­sis­tency on whole­sale accounts, but don’t be afraid to stand up a sin­gle vari­etal decaf on its own.

The bot­tom line to this arti­cle is this: treat decaf as you would con­ven­tional cof­fee when it comes to select­ing, cup­ping and blend­ing. Treat it dif­fer­ently in the roaster and you can get an out­stand­ing cup instead of, “Well, if the doc­tor said you HAD to drink decaf, then you can drink this.”