Best Tasting Decaf Coffee: You Snooze You Win

Are you one of those people who loves the taste of coffee, but doesn’t like that high dose of caffeine that comes with it?  Or, you just don’t want that cup keeping you up at night? If so, you’ve come to the right place to find the Best Tasting Decaf Coffee.

If you are that person, don’t worry!

There is still a way to get exactly what you want out of a cup of coffee, but without the caffeine jolt.

As it’s more commonly known, decaf is the beverage you typically order as a dessert coffee, or just for the taste and without staying up for the next six to eight hours.

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Decaf has become a more integrated part of the American culture these days.

Restaurants now ask if you want dessert or our best tasting decaf coffee.  And, coffee hang outs such as Starbucks offer a whole slew of different options when it comes to decaf.

It’s All About the Beans

But at its very root, the best decaf coffee splits off from caffeinated coffee at the very beginning: the beans.

DECAF Coffee

“DECAF” by Terry Johnston, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

There are several different ways by which coffee beans can be decaffeinated, which can include the Roselius process, the Swiss Water process, and the more popular Triglyceride process.

The Roselius method involves simply steaming the beans with various substances and then soaking them in benzene to remove the caffeine, while the Swiss Water process uses water as a solvent.

However, the most popular and well-known method of decaffeination is the triglyceride process.

Decaffeination !

“Decaffeination !” by Craig Sunter (CC BY-ND 2.0) via Flickr

In this method, green coffee beans are soaked in a hot water and coffee solution to draw out the caffeine and are then immersed in the coffee oils of spent coffee grounds to extract the caffeine.

This process is successful in removing the caffeine without affecting the taste of the beans. Of course, however you slice it, decaf still delivers on taste even without caffeine.

While decaffeinated coffee may not be the strongest of coffees, the taste is almost always up to par.

The best decaf beans on the coffee bean menu are all just as tasty as their caffeinated counterparts. And the decaf coffee blends out there definitely hold their own in the taste department.

Our Top 6 Best Tasting Decaf Coffee

Here are our top six best tasting decaf coffee beans (we couldn’t cut it to five).

Click on the link at the beginning or end of this article to see which one we found to be the very best!

Seattle’s Best Level 3 Decaf Ground Coffee

Seattle’s Best is a huge coffee competitor, and their decaf blend is no disappointment.

This twelve ounce bag of Seattle’s Best Level 3 Decaf Ground Coffee delivers a sweet, nutty flavor to your palette.

Not only that, but it also promises a rich and hearty aroma that will fill your house with the smell of Seattle’s Best Decaf.

Many talk about not being able to find this special nugget of a product in stores.  And, that’s actually a good thing.

When you buy online, you get the product shipped directly from Seattle’s Best.  This eliminates the time the product spends sitting on the store shelf growing old and stale.

With a 4.8 out of 5 stars rating, you can’t go wrong when looking for the best decaf coffee out there.  And, Seattle’s Best Level 3 Decaf Ground Coffee definitely doesn’t disappoint.

Don Pablo Decaf Swiss Colombian Gourmet Coffee Decaffeinated

Don Pablo Decaf Swiss Colombian Gourmet Coffee Decaffeinated comes from a quality producer that we’ve featured in the past.

Darron J. Burke created Cafe Don Pablo after travelling to Colombia to meet the family of the love of his life Elena.  Elena’s grandmother had a hard time pronouncing Darron’s name, so she just called him Don Pablo.  It was her combination of Darron and Pablo from a famous tongue twister saying in Colombia.

Cafe Don Pablo is committed to quality.  It’s one of the reasons we keep coming back to them with our selections as a featured coffee producer.  They have on staff a Q Grader that inspects every bean they roast.

Cafe Don Pablo never blends their coffees with inferior Robusta coffee beans.  Nor do they use beans from crops in previous years or defective beans.

They are certified by for AIB Food Safety and certified by CCOF for Organic Production.

These beans are list medium-dark as the roasting level.  But, we would say these are more towards the dark side.

These beans are low to medium acidity and they provide a full body cup of coffee.

Drinkers have described these decaffeinated beans to have light chocolate or cocoa notes that you typically find in Colombian beans.  Others have found the flavor to have an earthy taste with hints of caramel.

Don Pablo uses the Swiss Water Process (SWP) to decaffeinate their beans.  This process has been around since 1979 and is one of the few methods that is entirely chemical free.

We don’t think you can go wrong with this choice.  And, there are a host of coffee drinkers that agree.

Starbucks Decaf House Blend

Very well-known to the public’s eyes and stomachs, Starbucks has been delivering wonderfully fresh and flavorful coffee for a little over four decades.

For all that time, their coffee has never ceased to provide the very best taste and price, and their decaf blend is no exception.

The Starbucks Decaf House Blend Coffee promises a ground coffee that will revive and refresh you just when you need it.

Ranking in at 4.4 out of 5 stars, this blend will not only come through on the wonderful taste and aroma of the coffee you are expecting, it will also deliver a coffee experience like no other.

Peet’s Decaf House Blend

Although a lesser known brand than Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee doesn’t disappoint when it comes to their house blend.

So, what’s the story?

Peet’s Bagged Decaf Coffee delivers a bright and balanced taste that is medium-bodied.

It also comes with a hint of spice with a crisp finish.

This decaffeinated blend of coffee offers the perfect introduction to Peet’s signature style first blended by Mr. Peet.

The house blend originates from choice coffee beans from various Latin American origins, and promises the wonderful taste and aroma of coffee without the caffeine kick that usually comes with it.

Folgers Classic Decaf Medium Roast

Another well-known brand, Folgers never ceases to impress with their blends of coffee, not excluding their decaffeinated blend.

This blend offers a guarantee that the coffee is 99.7 percent caffeine free, but still envelops the taste buds with its wonderfully rich taste.

Folgers Classic Decaf Medium Roast manages to package the pure taste of coffee in a less bitter form, and still deliver the wonderful aromas and lack of caffeine that regular coffee simply doesn’t have.

Whether you want to drink the best tasting decaf coffee in the morning, afternoon, mid-afternoon, or after dinner, you can’t go wrong with Folgers Classic Decaf.

Maxwell House Decaf Medium Roast

One of the slightly lesser known brands, Maxwell House always supplies some of the best coffee blends on the market.

It’s no question that Maxwell House Decaf Original Roast is no exception.

This blend offers all the deliciously rich and balanced coffee without all the caffeine.

It is made from the finest of beans, which are carefully chosen and then expertly roasted to be good until the very last drop.

At a medium roast, this coffee is perfect for everyone that is simply looking for a good cup of coffee.

It even comes in a container with a Flavor Lock lid.

There’s just no getting around it: Maxwell House Decaf Original Roast promises everything, and they simply deliver!

Decaffeination Methods

Before we leave this topic, we thought we’d cover some of the different methods to decaffeinate coffee beans.

As we get into the different methods, we found it interesting that decaffeinated coffee isn’t really 100% sans caffeine.

Most decaffeinated coffee has less than 10 milligrams and typically 2 to 5 mg.

Here is a list of the different methods.  The folks at Coffee Confidential talk in more detail about these different methods:

  • Using a Direct Solvent (chemical and then washed)
  • Using an Indirect Solvent (steam, then wash away water droplets)
  • The Roselius Method (early 1900’s method
  • The Swiss Water Process (chemical-free considered organic)
  • The CO2 Process (uses liquid CO2 instead of questionable chemicals)

Different chemicals that decaf coffee bean manufacturers use as solvents (although, not in the SWP method) are:

While some of these have proven side effects for humans.  We found the chemical chloroform especially daunting as a chemical used for decaffeinating coffee.

Our only experience with chloroform is in the movies where an attacker soaks a rag to knock someone out.  The following movies scenes basically exhibit the only way we’ve known chloroform to be used (until now).  Hardly something you want to see as an ingredient to process something you plan to drink:

Conclusions for The Best Tasting Decaf Coffee

During our research, we found several methods to decaffeinate coffee.  We found the most interesting to be the Swiss Water Process.

As decaffeination goes, the Swiss Water Process is a relatively new process to the commercial decaf coffee markets.  It was originally invented in Switzerland in 1933.  However, it was brought to commercial markets in Canada by a company called Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company in 1988.

We especially are interested in the Swiss Water Process because it doesn’t introduce chemicals that might have adverse affects on those with allergies or adverse reactions to the chemicals used in decaffeination.

Do You Want the BEST DECAF Coffee Bean?

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We hope you liked the information we found while researching the Best Tasting Decaf Coffee in the world.  We found it enlightening and learned quite a lot doing the research!  If you enjoyed what we found during our research, please share this with your friends (it will really help us out).

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Friends of The Coffee Bean Menu: We would also like to introduce you to our friends at Dazzling White Teeth HQ. If you are a daily coffee drinker, you may find their advice useful to eliminate any teeth stains that might haunt you as an avid coffee drinker!

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