J
-flS S S MV
Helpful Facts
About
Decaffeinated
Coffee
Prepared for coffee-lovers by
THE WHITE COFFEE CORPORATION
11-50 44th Road, Long Island City, NY 11101
INTRODUCTION
Early in Spring, 1979, we announced that a new process had been developed for removing caffeine from whole green coffee beans.
The primary difference is that our new method uses just pure, fresh water to extract .the caffeine. Traditional methods, still considered fully ac ceptable, rely on the use of chemical or organic solvents—along with water and steam to remove caffeine.
Not surprisingly, our promotional announce ments and related news accounts have generated a substantial volume of inquiries regarding caffeine and its removal from coffee.
As a result, we’ve prepared this folder to help answer your questions. As new information be comes available, we’ll be sure to pass it along to your nearby coffee and tea retailers who make it a point to keep well informed about the products they offer you.
From time to time, well update this folder as it’s needed or issue others like it. Please feel welcome to write to us with any comments, suggestions or questions you have.
Customer Relations Department The White Coffee Corporation Box 1092/11-50 44th Road Long Island City, N Y 11101
N o te: Q uotations from The N ew Y ork T ones reprinted by perm ission.
(C ]979 by The N ew Y ork Tim es C om pa n y.)
Caffeine itself is a crystalline, bitter-tasting but odorless alkaloid. It’s pres ent in the seeds and leaves of a variety of plants, many of which have been sought
out for years as desirable food materials.
Early scientific analyses first identified it in the coffee plant toward the end of the 17th Century. In addition, caffeine is found in tea leaves, in cocoa pods and kola nuts, in the leaves of mate.
Caffeine is present in varying amounts in all varieties of coffee. In the green bean, caffeine con tent is about 1% of the milder Arabica types and about 2% of the Robustas.
For hundreds of years, caffeine has been the subject of considerable controversy and specula tion. And extensive research. Yet to this day, nothing very conclusive has been developed over the effects—good or questionable—of caffeine on humans.
Obviously, its use continues to be widespread in this country. Despite some declines in overall cof fee consumption, this country still consumes over a third of the coffee produced in the world. That comes to some 450 million cups a day in the U.S.
While caffeine is also present in tea, it exists as well in cola drinks, in cocoa and chocolate and in many prescription and over-the-counter drugs such as headache or cold remedies.
“Caffeine clears away mental cobwebs, re lieves drowsiness, masks fatique and creates for many a general sense of well-being,” explained Jane E. Brody in her Personal Health feature in
The New York Times.
That’s one reason why coffee has been in such demand throughout history—from the warriors in ancient Africa who chewed coffee beans on long marches to today’s office workers who relish their invigorating coffee breaks.
However, coffee stimulates some people more than others. Caffeine can produce effects ranging from mild excitement and a feeling of euphoria to extreme nervousness, irritability and sleepless ness. Some people, for medical reasons, shouldn’t have caffeine at all.
According to Jane Brody’s Times article, “Large doses of caffeine—the result, say, of drink ing several cups of coffee at one time or 10 or more
cups a day—can cause irregular or rapid heart beats; insomnia; upset stomach; increased breath ing rates, blood pressure and body temperature; nervousness and irritability. . .Sometimes caffeine has paradoxical effects. In some people it may cause a headache; in others it may relieve one. In some it raises the amount of sugar in the blood; in others it lowers it (and may consequently stimulate hunger pangs or, rarely, a hypoglycemic reaction—a dizzy, weak, nauseated, headachy, irritable feeling).”
How much is too m uch?
“Exactly where is caffeine’s golden mean?,” explores Kenneth Davids in his book, Coffee: A
Guide to Buying, Brewing, and Enjoying (101 Pro
ductions).
“No study will commit itself,” he reports. “I can only offer a consensus based on inference. . . no study reporting negative effects from doses of caffeine under 300 milligrams a day. Since the average cup of coffee contains about 100 milli grams of caffeine, we could infer from this evidence that virtually anyone should be able to drink about three cups of coffee a day and enjoy the benefits of caffeine with none of the drawbacks. Such a figure assumes, of course, that one doesn’t back the coffee up with a lot of cola drinks, chocolate bars, and headache pills. This is a con servative estimate, however. One could infer from other studies that five cups a day is safe for most people. Furthermore, response varies greatly from individual to individual.”
Growing demand for
decaffeinated coffee
Fortunately, there are other alternatives for people with low tolerances for caffeine.
While overall consumption of coffee has been dropping over the past 10 to 15 years, the use of decaffeinated coffee has gone up significantly.
“More and more often, as desserts are being ordered in restaurants these days, one hears requests for decaffeinated coffee,” reported food writer Mimi Sheraton in a New York Times article.
“To anyone who loves the rich flavor and aroma of coffee, the need or desire to abstain from caf
feine because it prevents sleep or has other possible harmful effects may cause a strong sense of depriva
tion, if not downright de spair. Yet, as I discovered quite by accident in a restaurant several months ago, the best decaf feinated coffee can smell and taste remarkably like the bracing original, albeit without the same bracing effect. It’s just a question of which decaffeinated you use.”
“If decaffeinated coffee has a bad name among true coffee devotees,” she continued,“ it is pro bably because they have tried only the most popu lar form of the most popular brand. . .(which) has become the generic name for all decaffeinated coffee. But the pallid interpretation is a far cry from decaffeinated coffee beans of high quality that are freshly roasted, freshly ground and freshly brewed.
The Times article reviewed the varieties of de
caffeinated coffee on the market, pointing out that “the possibilities for enjoying fairly convincing coffee are more promising than you might guess after trying only the leading national brands.”
Several nationally recognized brands of de caffeinated coffee have been available in all types of food stores for years. These are marketed mostly as instant, freeze-dried or in pre-ground roasted beans in vacuum-sealed tins.
As the demand expands, more and more specialty food stores as well as gourmet food sec tions of departments stores are adding far more appealing selections of decaffeinated coffee beans.
Most U.S. firms have their coffee beans de caffeinated in one of a handful of plants in this country.
A few, such as White Coffee Corporation, have their green coffee beans sent to Switzerland
to have the caffeine removed.
H ow caffeine
is rem oved
In his book on Coffee, Kenneth Davis de scribes two of the most generally used methods for extracting caffeine from green coffee beans, before their delicate flavors and oils are developed through roasting. The caffeine itself is sold to manufacturers of soft drinks and medicines.
“In the older processes the beans are first steamed to open their pores, then soaked in an organic solvent which dissolves the caffeine. The beans are then again steamed to remove the sol vent residues, dried, and roasted like any other green coffee. This process has an obvious draw back: minute quantities of the solvent may remain in the bean spoiling flavor and ruining the day of any health fanatic who finds out about it.
“A process developed later simply soaks the green beans in hot (almost boiling) water for several hours. The water is then transferred to another tank where it is combined with a solvent which absorbs most of the caffeine. The caffeine laden solvent is then separated from the water. The solvent is much easier to remove from water than from beans, because the solvent is lighter than water and never really mixes with it, whereas cer tain oils in the beans may actually selectively com bine with the solvents, making it impossible to re move entirely. The water is now free of both caffeine and solvent, but still contains oils and other materials important to flavor. In order not to lose these materials, the water is returned to the first tank, where it’s reabsorbed by the green beans.”
Among the solvents used: trichlorethylene which has in recent years been replaced by
methylene chloride. While both have been under
careful study, their use is still considered accept able. Decaffeinators claim there is little or no sol vent residue although there are further questions as to just how much the eventual flavor of the re sulting brew is impaired by the use of any solvents in the caffeine-removal process.
A t last:
an all-natural
technique
White Coffee Corporation is the first importer/ roaster to offer naturally decaffeinated coffee in this country. (Up until press time we’re still the only firm doing so, as far as we know.)
This new method was recently developed by our exclusive decaffeinator, Coffex Ltd., head quartered in Switzerland.
What’s especially significant about this revo lutionary new process is that there is no change in the natural flavor or character of coffee brewed from these beans.
“So good, you’d never believe it’s decaf feinated,” declared one of our leading specialty- food retailers in New York.
The primary difference in decaffeinating pro cedures is that the new method uses just pure, fresh water to extract the caffeine that’s in coffee.
The Times’ Mimi Sheraton welcomed the announcement of the new process “. . .as the best news in the decaffeinated field to come along in years.”
In the same Times article, the firm’s export manager reported that . .samples of coffee brew ed from the roasted beans had been presented to a
W h y go att the w ay to
Switzerland to rem ove caffeine?
When increasing demand originally required that we include decaffeinated beans in our selec tions, we made a point of carefully researching— and evaluating, testing, comparing and testing even more—the various resources and methods for removing caffeine from coffee.
From the beginning, our choice was to work closely with Coffex even though it meant our having to ship green coffee beans first to Switzer land for decaffeinating before bringing them into the States.
Certainly, there are reputable decaffeinators in this country, with adequate facilities. However, we determined that Coffex had acquired much greater expertise in this critical process by having to meet the particularly stringent require ments of their European clientele—specifically in the handling of high-grade and, most often, rare coffees.
panel of professional coffee tasters, who found that the new-process beans had a fresher and more natural taste. (The same executive) said that he himself could tell no difference once the beans were roasted”.
As further support to their claims, Coffex provides us with certification of their solvent-free process. The confirmation by the Chief Chemical Engineer of the laboratory of the Canton of Schaffausen states that the coffee and the extract containing caffeine do not in any phase of the pro cess come into contact with methylene chloride or similar solvents.
We’ve always been assured that the previous method left no solvent traces in our coffee beans. Nevertheless, we’ve switched to this new water- only system both to eliminate any conceivable con sumer doubts and, in particular, to avoid any possible effect on the coffee’s natural flavor.
For the time being, production under the sol vent-free process is somewhat limited.
As a result, we’ve chosen two of our top-quality, much-in-demand coffees for this natural decaffeina- tion process.
(1) 100% Colombian— our specially selected high- grown, large-bean Arabica that’s best known for its heady aroma and rich flavor.
(2) Tanzania Kili
manjaro AA—a rare, les
ser-known but highly re garded Arabica grown high on those famed slopes; we’re direct US im
porters of what is the highest, choicest grade produced in that country.
You’ll find our new-process decaffeinated coffee at selected food stores who carry many of our other choice coffee bean varieties under the
White House Coffee brand.
At these stores, our freshly roasted coffee beans are available to you in whole-bean or custom- ground form. Some also carry our gourmet coffees in vacuum-packed tins.
As with all our products, our coffees are selected and prepared with our hundred-year old commitment to unquestioned quality. We are today one of the nation’s largest full-service resources of high-quality specialty coffees, teas and accessories.
PAGE SEVEN //Kum.w'* COFFEE
