Swiss Water Decaf v. Ethyl Acetate Decaf and Why We Prefer EA Process

On average Americans drink 400 million cups of coffee per day. Whether that be at home, at the office, or your local coffee shop, coffee is habitual for millions of people. Though, drinking large amounts of coffee can cause adverse effects on a person; making decaf is an incredible option to continue sipping on your favorite beverage. Today I will walk you through two methods of decaffeination that we have used here at Little Amps - Swiss Water Processing and Ethyl Acetate Processing.

Swiss Water is a decaffeination process that was invented in 1933 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The process begins by taking green, unroasted coffee and fully submerging it in water for a period of time to create Green Coffee Extract (GCE). This extract is then put through activated carbon filters to catch and trap large caffeine molecules, but simultaneously allowing flavor compounds to flow through to maintain flavor. This process is then repeated for an average of 8-10 hours. The outcome, coffee that is 99.9% caffeine-free! This 100% chemical-free process allows for peace of mind for those that wish to drink a great cuppa decaf!

On the other hand, the Ethyl Acetate process, or EA, is a natural compound derived from cane sugar that is found in fruits and various other foods. To begin the process the green coffee is steamed for 30 minutes to allow for the coffee to open and begin the extraction process. From there it is submerged into the EA solution for a period of time. During this the EA bonds to chlorogenic acid and separates the caffeine from the rest of the bean. Chlorogenic acid is a natural compound found in fruits, green coffee, and tea. Once the beans reach a level of saturation the solution is emptied and the process is repeated for around 8 hours until the coffee is sufficiently decaffeinated  by 97%! The finishing steps are to steam the coffee once again to remove trace amounts of EA solution and then dried and polished.

We at Little Amps find that EA process is favored among staff and customers alike. The flavor quality is exceptional, finding that we do not experience a ‘decaf’ flavor like some processes may have. We invite you to enjoy our current decaf offering an EA process from Colombia!