Decaf is characterized as a product that has gone through a process of decaffeination. A sizable portion of the caffeine content in coffee or tea has been removed from the bean or leaves prior to packaging. But decaf doesn't mean it's now caffeine-free. There's still some caffeine in the coffee or tea.
Identification
According to the University of California-Berkeley, decaf is a designation given to any caffeinated product that has at least 97 percent of its caffeine content removed. Drinking decaf doesn't mean you're no longer consuming caffeine. Your average brewed or drip coffee contains anywhere between 80 mg and 175 mg of caffeine per 8 oz. cup, so the decaf version can have 2.4 to 5.25 mg in each serving. Some decaffeinated coffees contain upward of 12 mg, notes the Mayo Clinic.
Process
The decaffeination process is pretty much the same across the board. The beans are first soaked in water to extract the caffeine from the bean itself. But this process also leaches a lot of the flavor from the bean. To reintroduce this flavor, the bean must again be soaked in this water, so the water is exposed to a solvent containing methylene chloride, ethyl acetate or activated carbon to remove the caffeine. The beans are then re-soaked in the decaffeinated water to add flavor back into the bean.
Safety Factor
Regardless of the solvent used to remove the caffeine from coffee or tea, the University of California-Berkeley says each process is safe. Ethyl acetate is considered a natural method of removing caffeine because the solvent is derived from fruit. Even methylene chloride, which could be a carcinogen when inhaled, allegedly doesn't pose a threat when used in the decaffeination process.
Effects
The fact that decaf coffee or tea still has caffeine content could pose a problem for people sensitive to this substance. Though a moderate amount of caffeine, which is defined as 200 to 300 mg a day, isn't usually harmful, the Mayo Clinic explains that even a little bit of caffeine can cause anxiety, restlessness, irritability and sleeplessness in some people. It may also cause heartburn, irritate ulcers and increase blood pressure. If your body adversely reacts to caffeine, drinking decaf may not be an option. Total cessation is the only surefire method to prevent any one of these side effects.
Expert Insight
There's now a genetically altered coffee plant that grows beans with 70 percent less caffeine than the average bean, so there may come a time where the decaffeination process isn't used to provide decaf coffee.
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