Decaf Explained

We've uploaded a follow-up video with a couple of corrections and amendments: https://youtu.be/IszQ2JR3Olc

No one is sitting through a 20 minute video on decaffeination who doesn’t also want to see a coffee factory tour. Hell yes I want to see that.

As a decaf-only drinker, I'd love to see a video of you trying everyone's decaf bean recommendations and sharing your thoughts. Thanks for making this great video.

As a barista for 8 years, I always hated the idea of decaf, until recently I got to the point where I craved coffee but didn't want the jitters. Immediately then I understood why decaf existed and never knocked it since.

As a decaf-only drinker, I put off watching this video for fear it would make me feel bad. Glad I watched the video and happy to hear I am a “top-tier” coffee drinker according to James!😊❤

I used to work for Swiss Water Decaf for seven years, running the cupping lab & buying green coffee, and this video is a really well researched and fair overview of decaf today. One thing I'd add is that the single largest contributing factor to the quality of decaf is really the quality of the green coffee going into the process. Garbage in = garbage out. Quality coffee in is going to yield a far greater decaf! The flipside of that, is that cost becomes the biggest single barrier to truly great decaf, as most roasters want their decaf coffee to be cheap, but processing itself adds costs as well, so folks often end up opting for cheaper quality green to decaffeinate, resulting in a sub-optimal finished product. You also made a really great point about the poor presentation of decaf within the cafe environment and how that contributes to sales and perception. A number of years back we ran a popup in New York (I won't post a link, but it can be found if you google it) serving nothing but decaf coffees. It was a really fun experiment, and a testament to the fact that quality decafs, presented well, can be both interesting and delicious. Lots of other thoughts, but Ill refrain from the essay for now. Great video!

I have never felt more accomplished than James Hoffmann calling me a top tier coffee drinker <3

I grew up in an Ethiopian household where there's an entire culture around coffee drinking (I won't go into it since there are plenty of videos). Growing up, my mother always made coffee in the afternoon and invited neighbors to come hang out. While she was roasting the coffee beans, my siblings and I would often pick up roasted beans from the pan and eat them. These were always some of the most fun times of my childhood so I've always had a positive association with the taste and smell of coffee. I drink decaf because I don't need the caffeine to enjoy it. In fact, I'm not a huge fan of caffeine because of the swings in my energy level and its effect on my sleep. I only use it on tough days when I'm tired or sleep deprived and need to get some work done.

Heya. I've been drinking alcohol pretty much every day for some years now and have only recently gone sober. This video has been an unexpected support going through withdrawal. It turns out, when you take out the downer out of the equation that you had thoroughly integrated into your body chemistry, the tolerance for other things, like caffeine, goes way out of whack and i had to nearly cut coffee completely as it was making withdrawal immensely worse. This, and the other video about coffee alternatives has really helped me retain some small joy during withdrawal, and I guess I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to make a dedicated video about decaf and other coffee alternatives.

As someone who has recently had to switch to mostly decaf for medical reasons this video is exactly what I needed

I rarely comment but I think it's finally my time to shine. I am a Decaff drinker because I am extremely sensitive to caffeine. When you said that there was still caffeine in decaff, this was something I already knew because I cannot drink even decaf after 12pm without it effecting my sleep. That is how sensitive I am. The more interesting story is how I became so sensitive in the first place. I was raised on coffee, as in, when most infants were handed a bottle with ice tea or water, I was given a bottle of coffee. No, I don't know why, my parents were not good people. I started kindergarten having coffee as part of my breakfast, and this continued all through school. I was shocked when I found out coffee wasn't given to children. It should be noted, this was predominantly instant, but in my later years, by say 9/10 yo we had purchased a coffee machine and I was drinking fresh beans rather than instant. By the time I was 15 I was drinking 7-8 (500ml) cups per day. I could drink coffee up till 5pm with no negative effects on my sleep. When I entered the final years of High School and was putting in some all nighters for study, I was drinking anywhere between 10-12 (500ml) cups per day. In my early 20s, I ended up in therapy for depression and anxiety associated with childhood trauma (again, parents were not good people) and my therapist strongly suggested I cut back on my coffee for health reasons, turns out it was exacerbating my anxiety. Their recommendation was to try a high quality decaff, I of course scoffed as any coffee drinker would and proclaimed "Death before Decaff!", but after a few more sessions I acquiesced that I would investigate the decaff situation but in the mean time I would reduce my coffee intake. With time I reduced to about 6 (500ml) cups a day. Some years later, I was a working part of the corporate cog and coffee was once again one of my crutches, I had a special mug (my 500ml one) that I brought to the office for my coffee, and a small coffee heater plate that sat on my desk next to my phone that kept this monster cup from getting cold while I worked. Again I was averaging about 8-10 cups a day. I was also approaching a health crisis, one which was not actually associated with caffeine but rather the copious amounts of milk that I was drinking in the coffee. It turned out that I was actually allergic to cow milk (NOTE: allergic, not intolerant, I got rash and breathing issues, not IBS) and it was coming to a crux. I had to make some changes. Once again in my stubborn high strung state, I refused coffee without milk because the way I took my coffee was as much a part of my personality as coffee was, and so ended up quitting cold turkey! Never Do This!!! I had two full weeks of withdrawal: headaches, mood swings, sleep disruptions, and I think even some hallucinations. I have very limited memory of those two weeks but my husband remembers and I think he's traumatised from it. But I was finally free from it. No more coffee because no more milk. This went on for about 3 or 4 years before I came to the conclusion that I missed the flavour of coffee, I missed the burnt black gold. So I tried a cup black and holy shit, worst night of my life!!! I decided then that maybe decaff was worth another shot and seeing as it wasn't real coffee I could try it with oat milk too. I found something almost as good, but not as good as I remember, but that I could drink without causing my entire system to shut down. Not long after that I found James Hoffman. Your videos re-ignited my passion for that beautiful drink that was such a huge part of my childhood, and I craved it more than ever, so I went on the hunt. I found a local "backyard" roaster who had a Colombian (Swiss water process) Decaff and he would grind to my specifications, 250g at a time, this coupled with James' plunger coffee method and a really high quality barista oat milk and I finally had a way back into good coffee. I still can only have one cup a day, and it has to be before 12pm, but I am back baby and doing it in a healthy, manageable way. Caffeine man, whether you want to admit it or not, it's a hell-ov-a drug. But good coffee, that is just pure art.

My grandma has labyrinthitis so she can’t drink coffee with caffeine. She almost cried when it was told to her that she no longer would be able to have her traditional afternoon coffee, because there was a whole bunch of affective memories associated to that. So she drinks decaff, not because she needs the energy, but because coffee, itself, it’s valuable to her as a good memory.

As a decaf drinker, I can't thank you enough for breaking through the negativity around it! It is hard enough to get good decaf, but it is getting even harder since much of the coffee sections at stores and even cafes are now full of pods instead of specialty beans, pods that don't often have decaf options too. Similarly, the cold brew sections at stores never have decaf options. So decaf even in the past couple of years has gotten harder to buy in person without a great effort. Shedding light on both the positive aspects of decaf and helping people learn how make better decaf coffee with your influence I very much hope will help change things for the better for decaf drinkers. I'm always sad at all the options I don't get to try, so it would be great to have more! One question: does brewed decaf coffee deteriorate faster than caffeinated coffee? I've had some off odors when making cold brew and when leaving coffee in my french press out for awhile. Perhaps I will make some caffeinated coffee just to compare even though I can't drink it, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks!

Let's not forget the pregnant ladies. A good decaf is necessary even for people who have a strong caffeine tolerance, either because you yourself are pregnant and spending 10 months without a good cup of coffee (or more, if you are breastfeeding), or your partner is pregnant and it would not be fair if you are drinking good coffee but your partner is stuck with shitty supermarket decaf.

Avoided consuming caffeine years ago and kept drinking coffee, appreciate James calling us folks top tier, and can’t count how many times i was told what’s the point of drinking decaf coffee.

Hi, I am a barista myself and I must say this video was really interesting to hear. To be honest I was a little skeptical in the beginning because for me to make decaf it is more of a hassle. Because of the way we hold our decaf, like you said in the video if the coffee is in touch with air, the flavor will gradually become bland and that is the case in my coffee shop. I will be talking to my higher-ups a little about how to make our decaf taste better! Thank you!

Hands down one of my favourite YouTube videos of all time. Full coffee nerd here but waow that was something. Developed a coffee sensitivity after years of tasting for cafes etc. Now I spend each coffee trip finding the best decafs and the places that serve them. It was never about the caffeine, it was always about the drink.

Imagine being so confident that you offer to make JAMES HOFFMAN an espresso ... And then trick him with decaf. Basically switched to the hardest setting and still aced the final boss fight.

I doubt you read through these comments James, but on the off chance you do, I just want to thank you for making this video. I learned a lot. I only drink decaf, caffeine makes my heart race and feel uncomfortable, but I love everything else about coffee so decaf is my only option. The fact decaf beans go stale so quickly was really interesting. I'm going to freeze my beans from now on. If anyone is interested, the best three decaf beans I've tried, in order of preference is, Crown & Canves, Blindman, and Rave. All of their decaf beans are great

In the Philippines, Crema and Cream Roasters has a Sugar Cane Decaf that they’re proud of. It’s from Popahan, Columbia and it has notes of cocoa, cookie butter, and pecan. Such a pleasant cup to end the day with. Most people I’ve shared this coffee with had no idea that they were drinking decaf