Swiss Water Decaf - How Our Brazil Decaf Offering Is Produced

Swiss Water Decaf is a 100% chemical free decaffeination process, which uses no organic solvents, and instead uses only water. The result is a decaf coffee that is 99.9% caffeine free. Perfect for a late night brew.

The Swiss Water process was first introduced in (you guessed it) Switzerland, in 1933. The process as we know it now was introduced by The Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company in 1988.

The Process

1. Green Coffee Extract (GCE) creation: The green coffee extract is created once, using water and the soluble solids within the coffee bean (minus the caffeine), which is then used for the caffeine extraction.
2. Clean & Pre Soak: Before the coffee can be decaffeinated, the green coffee bean must first be rehydrated to the target ideal moisture level for optimal caffeine removal. This step also cleans the coffee, removing dirt, dust and silver skin.
3. Removal of Caffeine: The green coffee extract, created in step 1, is then circulated around the green coffee beans for roughly 8-10 hours, or until there is no more than 0.1% of caffeine left in the coffee beans. This happens due to the gradient pressure difference between the GCE (caffeine-lean) and the green coffee (caffeine-rich) which causes the caffeine molecules to migrate from the green coffee into the GCE.
4. GCE Refresh: The caffeine is then removed from the green coffee extract solution through a proprietary carbon filter system. The carbon is then recycled for reuse, by being sent away to have the caffeine content removed.
5.  GCE Renewal: Throughout the decaffeination process, the GCE is constantly being renewed as the health of the solution is monitored. This means that a new batch of GCE is not needed every time until the health of the solution requires it.

The Swiss Water process is one of the best processes for removing caffeine from coffee without affecting the flavour of the coffee beans.