The best part of waking up is no caffeine
in your cup.
Wait.. what?
that’s no fun.
Hey everyone Julia here for DNews
I need my caffeine in the morning.
i’m a total zombie without it.
And so are millions of other Americans.
Nearly 83% of the population drinks coffee,
according to the National Coffee Association.
Another survey by Zagat found that most people
drink 2.1 cups a day.
And that’s not a bad thing.
Some studies show that coffee can boost your
focus and even help prevent diabetes and lower
the risk of liver disease.
But for some the caffeine leaves them anxious
and jittery.
But maybe those people still like the taste
but not the perks, so for them, decaf is the
way to go.
But how do you decaffeinate coffee?
Big shout out to our viewer Jasper Lithgow
for asking this very good question.
Caffeine occurs naturally in some plants,
like the cocoa tree, Coffea plants, and Camellia
sinensis from which tea is made.
Like I said, naturally, so any decaffeinating
process is pretty unnatural.
The first decaffeination process was really
unnatural.
it was even a little dangerous.
German merchant Ludwig Roselius accidently
discovered that salt water soaked the caffeine
out of his coffee beans while they shipped
across the ocean.
And for some reason he thought this was a
totally good idea.
So he tried to recreate it by steaming the
beans and using a solvent to remove the caffeine.
Unfortunately he picked benzene which according
to the Center for Disease Control is a known
carcinogen and can cause some serious discomfort
like, stomach pain, dizziness and even death.
So yeah that’s not good.
While benzene is no longer used, other chemicals
are still used to remove caffeine.
The process is a little complicated.
Beans are first soaked in water, which opens
the pores in the bean so the caffeine dissolves.
But so does some of the flavor.
This water then gets treated with a solvent,
typically dichloromethane and ethyl acetate,
for about ten hours.
This separates the caffeine from the flavors.
Finally the mix gets heated to evaporate the
solvents and the caffeine.
This treated water gets returned to the bean
so they can re-soak up the flavor.
Typically this is what that “natural”
is talking about when a package says it’s
“naturally decaffeinated”.
I know, i know, it doesn’t sound completely
naturally.
But one of the solvents, ethyl acetate pretty
natural, it’s found in a lot of fruits.
Unfortunately it’s difficult to extract,
so most manufacturers use a synthetic version.
Another process gets a little fancier.
The Swiss Water Process relies on simple concepts
like osmosis and solubility to remove the
caffeine.
Using water from mountains in british columbia,
the beans are bathed in really hot water to
draw out the caffeine.
which is then drawn through a charcoal filter
which catches the large caffeine molecules
but not the other good things you’d want
to stay in the bean like the flavor.
So then that water is then returned to the
beans to put the flavor back.
But these are “indirect” ways of removing
caffeine, the solvents never touch the beans!
A more direct way uses CO2.
After the beans are soaked in water, they’re
placed in a stainless steel container called
an extraction vessel.
Liquid CO2 is then forced into the beans at
enormous pressure.
At 1,000 pounds per square inch!
The CO2 draws out the caffeine but leaves
flavors behind.
That’s so weird and science fiction-y.
While decaf might seem weird, and kind of
pointless… some studies show it still retains
some of the health benefits!
I mean decaf still has caffeine.
One study published in the Journal of Analytical
Toxicology found that most major brands have
around 8.6 milligrams to 13.9 milligrams of
caffeine.
Compared to a normal cup which has around
85 milligrams.
One study published in the journal Nutritional
Neuroscience found that a cup of decaf might
help the way the brain metabolizes energy.
It could also prove useful for helping prevent
and treat decline from diabetes or aging.
No matter your coffee style, there’s no
doubt caffeine can pack a punch.
Trace explains exactly what caffeine does
you in this video here.
How much coffee do you drink?
Would you do decaf?
Let us know in the comments below.
Or if you have any other questions about the
science of food, leave those too!
We could answer them in a future episode.
