Caffeine is actively present in coffee, lending its stimulating power to the brew. While most people love coffee for it caffeine content there are many who do not find it healthy. It is for them that decaffeinated or decaf coffee is made. Decaffeinated coffee may not be completely devoid of caffeine.
Various methods are used to make decaf coffee. The process is usually performed on unroasted or green beans. Starting with steaming the beans, they are rinsed in solvent containing as much of the chemical composition of coffee as possible without also containing the caffeine in a soluble form.
The process is repeated 8 to 12 times until it meets the standard for having removed up to 97 or 99 percent of the caffeine in the beans. Coffee contains over 400 chemicals important to the taste and aroma of the final drink. This could also possibly mean that the chemical reaction would remove other content along with the caffeine.
Coffee Arabica normally contains about half the caffeine of Coffee Robusta. This was discovery in 2004, may redefine the way low-caffeine coffee would produced in the future. Also the possibilities of genetic engineering could be applied to create an inherently caffeine-free coffee.
