Now if that didn't make much sense to you. Let me simplify it further for you with a chemistry experiment that most people have conducted either accidently or for the purpose of school work. The experiment is called creating a hyposaturated solution. You may recall taking salt and stirring it into a glass of warm water. In this process you were to slowly add salt stirring it so it can dissolve. At one point when adding salt you would notice that no further salt was able to dissolve. This is called a hyposaturated solution a very basic first chemistry project... This process is similar to the Swiss Water Process with exception to there proprietary process for getting the flavanoids of coffee to dissolve into the water. When Swiss Water creates this hyposaturated solution you have a hyposaturated solution of coffee flavenoids mixed with dissolved caffeine. The caffeine is filtered off by there proprietary process. Now after creating this hyposaturated solution the first batch of coffee is then disposed of. Then the next batch of beans are put through the process with the newly created flavenoid charged water. Now because the water is flavor charged or hyposaturated the result is that only the caffeine is able to dissolve into the water and the flavenoids in the new batch of beans are allowed to remain in the bean because the coffee flavenoids cannot be absorbed into the hyposaturated solution. The caffeine is once again filtered off and the process continued until all the coffee in the batch is processed.

So hopefully this was a more thorough explanantion of the Process...

More on the Swiss Water Process.

People drink decaffeinated coffee for a variety of reasons. However, it's important to know that decaffeination methods vary. Most use chemical solvents such as methylene chloride or ethyl acetate to strip caffeine molecules from the green coffee bean. And some leave behind more caffeine than you would think.

Alternatively, the proprietary SWISS WATER ® Process uses water from the pristine environment of the coast mountains of British Columbia, Canada to gently remove the caffeine until the coffee beans are 99.9% caffeine-free, while maintaining the bean's distinctive origin and flavor characteristics. It's decaffeinated coffee without compromise.

How do you know how your coffee is decaffeinated? This is difficult unless the coffee package labeling identifies the method or process. Coffee brands using SWISS WATER ® Process communicate their decaffeination choice by use of the Swiss Water ® Process seal or wordmark. It's a way to help you know.

Caffeine is a natural occurring substance that is present in the leaves, seeds and fruits of more than sixty different plant species worldwide. Many food and beverage products made from these plants inherently contain varying amounts of caffeine

A typical 12oz cup of caffeinated coffee contains between 120 mg to 180 mg of caffeine while a decaffeinated cup of coffee the same size has caffeine levels anywhere between 2 mg and 6 mg. The blend composition, extraction rates, water temperature, grind and roast can all minutely affect the final caffeine levels found in decaf coffee and accounts for the difference.

Espresso has similar caffeine content on a volume basis to brewed coffee. Therefore, decaf espresso will have only trace amounts of caffeine, similar to the caffeine content of brewed decaf.

Decaffeination Standards

In the US, decaffeinated coffee has a guideline that requires 97% of the caffeine to be removed from a green coffee bean. Being a guideline, as opposed to a standard, provides roasters more flexibility in terms of the percent of caffeine removed. However, in Canada and the international community, 99.9% caffeine-free is the recognized standard for decaffeinated coffee based on the maximum allowable caffeine level remaining in a decaffeinated green coffee bean.

Coffee decaffeinated using the environment-friendly SWISS WATER ® Process undergoes regular caffeine level audits to ensure compliance to 99.9% caffeine-free. We take pride in setting high quality standards and have a Certificate of Analysis (COA) for every batch of beans we decaffeinate with our water decaffeination process.