Technology Decaffeination was invented at the very beginning of the last century.
In 1903, German Ludwig Rosemus proposed a method for removing caffeine from coffee. A case helped him: a ship with a load of coffee fell into a fierce storm, and the grains were wet with sea water.
After checking their quality, Rosemus found that the beans were caffeinated, but quite usable.
He patented his method of removing caffeine in the United States and began producing caffeine-free Sachnka coffee in New Jersey.
This brand of caffeine-free coffee became widespread only in 1930 thanks to the manufacturer's extremely active advertising campaign & mdash; corporation & laquo; General foods & raquo;.
Since then, caffeine-free coffee has been called generically sledge in the USA (from the French phrase sans caffeine & mdash; & laquo; decaf & raquo;).
With the light hand of Kenneth Davis, it became a common phrase that decaf coffee is like a fragrant garden without snakes.
The problem with decaffeination is to make coffee healthy by removing caffeine from it, while at the same time keeping the other components that determine its taste and aroma unchanged.
Today, the technology is so advanced that decaffeinated coffee tastes and tastes the same as regular coffee.
It should be noted, however, that there is a rather strong bias towards this coffee on the part of many drinkers, which is completely unjustified.
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Decaffeination of coffee
Green coffee grains are decaffeinated.
Several hundred methods have been developed for producing caffeine-free coffee. Without delving into the intricacies of this process, let's briefly dwell on three main ways.
They all start with soaking the grains to open the pores and weaken the properties of caffeine. At the same time, coffee grain swells and almost doubles in volume.
Traditional
The oldest way is called differently: & laquo; European & raquo;, & laquo; traditional & raquo;, & laquo; ordinary & raquo;, & laquo; normal & raquo;, & laquo; direct & raquo; etc.
Its essence is that coffee grains are soaked in hot water (but not boiling water). Then the water is drained, and the grains are poured with a solvent to remove the caffeine contained in them.
After this stage, the grains are again poured with water, this time boiling water, rinsed thoroughly in it, and then dried.
In a special device, the caffeine contained in the solvent is separated from the water.
Methylene chloride (methylene chloride - dichloromethane, methylene chloride & mdash; colorless liquid with the odor of chloroform; used as a solvent for plastics, fats, etc., has a weak narcotic property) or ethyl acetate (ethyl acetate - acetic-ethyl ether - a colorless highly volatile liquid with a pleasant fruity smell; serves as a component of fruit essences for soft drinks, liqueurs and confectionery).
Since the use of methylene chloride has been limited in recent years due to the fact that it contributes to the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer, ethyl acetate is mainly used.
Regardless of which solvent is used, this method of caffeine extraction still has one significant drawback in the grains, which worsens the taste of coffee.
In addition, the solvent is not harmless to health.
Water only
Another way of decaffeination is called & laquo; Swiss water & raquo;, or & laquo; water only & raquo;.
It was developed by Swiss firm & laquo; Coffex & raquo; relatively recently & mdash; in 1979, but has already gained distribution and popularity.
No solvent is used at all in this process. By soaking green grains in hot water, caffeine is removed from them along with flavor components.
The water is then drained and caffeine is retained by activated charcoal filters while the flavor components remain dissolved.
A new batch of green grains is soaked in this caffeine-free water, but saturated with flavor components. Water only takes caffeine from the new batch of grains.
Thus, caffeine grains are deprived of caffeine, but retain all taste and aroma components.
Although the costs of this decaffeination method are much higher, it still allows you to get coffee that has a thinner taste and aroma.
This is a top quality product that is not hazardous to health.
The latter argument fully justifies the high cost of the decaffeinated coffee obtained in this way coffee.
Use of compressed gas
Another decaffeination method patented in Germany in 1970 is the use of compressed gas & mdash; carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide & mdash; carbonic anhydride, carbon dioxide CO 2 ; used in the production of carbonated water, beer and sugar, goes to the manufacture of & laquo; dry ice & raquo;, in agriculture it is used as a fertilizer).
After soaking in water, the coffee grains are further soaked for 10 hours in compressed carbon dioxide and a small amount of water (about 3%) at a temperature of 70 & deg; C.
Under such conditions, the gas turns into a liquid and acts as a solvent. He takes only caffeine from the grains, leaving the taste and aroma components of coffee intact.
What is very important & mdash; carbon dioxide leaves absolutely no trace in the drink.
For the production of decaffeinated coffee, they began to use high-quality arabica, in which the caffeine content using some technologies may not exceed 3% of its original amount.
Some sophisticated coffee fans add a couple of ordinary grains to them before grinding decaf grains.
This will only slightly increase the caffeine content of the drink, but coffee made in this way wins significantly in taste and aroma.