It always amazes me when people complain about decaf tasting bad. I have been a decaf coffee drinker for years now and I rarely have bad decaf that I make myself. I decided it was time to explore this issue more and try and help some people to improve their decaf experience.
Why does decaf coffee taste bad? Decaf coffees flavor can be affected by poor roasting, stale beans, low quality coffee, or poor brewing methods. Most often a combination of low quality coffee and poor brewing methods is the cause.
I find nine times out of ten the biggest issue with decaf is either people buying cheap coffee or brewing it wrong. Decaf that is processed poorly and roasted poorly will taste bad. Combined with poor brewing methods yielding a really awful cup of dirty sock water! Most of the time when people complain about bad decaf its because they buy really cheap coffee and expect a miracle. Worst still those illogical complainers will then mumble something about how decaf never tastes good. Ask them to name the one flavor they taste in the decaf and watch their head explode!
What is a good tasting coffee?
Let’s start at the basics. What should a coffee taste like anyway? This is going to vary based on personal taste. Generally coffee flavor is a balance of acidity, body, roast and processing. Some people might enjoy a light roasted coffee high in acidity, low aroma, with a smooth body, that is fruit or wine like. Others may enjoy a dark roasted, bitter, clean and earthy coffee. And I make no promises you can find all these combinations together they are just examples.
Let’s break this down into basics to think about. Acidity is the perceived tartness of coffee which, based on my research it somewhat relates to the actual PH of coffee. As that’s not my focus here I wont go into details on the PH of a coffee versus perceived acidity. You might read or hear people talk about coffee having a grapefruit like acidity or tasting of stone fruit. This is generally what acidity is.
Next is body. This is the perceived feeling in the mouth. Much like milk and water don’t feel the same when you drink them this is true of coffee. What’s the ideal body to have? Brad Pitt of course or J LO. Wait what was the question again, lol? It depends on one’s taste. I personally like a heartier coffee that is more full or velvety. Others may prefer a decaf that is tea like.
Another important factor in choosing a good decaf is roast level. There are many complexities different roasts will introduce into a coffee. Lighter roasts will tend to introduce more of the beans natural flavors and origins. Darker roasts tend to eliminate those flavors and create flavors based on sugars caramelizing in the beans. I personally like a darker roast for more heavy and roasty flavor. I also at times enjoy lighter roasts as they can be very interesting flavor wise. Experimenting with lighter and darker roasts in my SR500 roaster and it does yield different flavors. Can I identify every nuisance, no, but generally the changes going from light to dark roasts are distinct.
Finally a last important consideration is processing method of the coffee beans. I am not referring to decaf process but harvesting methods. Some methods leave the coffee fruits on and ferment them off. Others mechanically stripe them then dry the beans. There are even coffees like Indian Monsoon that intentionally store the coffee in a high humidity environment to age the coffee. Or the ever famous Kopi Luwak, the coffee eaten by cats and pooped out prior to roasting. One of my favorite scenes in the movie Bucket List when the one character reveals to the other that his favorite coffee was pooped out by a cat !
Processing has a huge effect on flavor and is worth considering though you really have no control over this. These methods are based on regional historical harvesting and processing methods. I doubt you would find an Indian Monsooned Brazilian coffee for example though interesting. A small side note here as coffee continues to evolve and get more high tech I predict you will find more and more unique and strange methods for aging and processing coffee!
Low quality supermarket coffee
Most of the time when people complain about the decaf I find out they buy the cheapest stuff on sale at the grocery store. I won’t name any brands but you know the red or blue barrels of coffee for a few dollars. The main problem with low quality decafs is they generally are not even all arabica beans. Didn’t know there was more than one type of coffee bean?
Coffee has two main varieties Arabica and Robusta. Arabaic is the gold standard of coffee and has been since pretty much coffee was cultivated. Robusta was originally farmed for its better disease resistance and not its flavor. Though it turns out Robusta may lack in flavor but it’s actually high in caffeine than Arabica.
The dirty little secret of cheap coffee? They add in Robusta beans as a cheap filler to drive the price down. Doubt me? Go read the label on the cheap stuff and you will notice that it only mentions 100% coffee not 100% Arabica! This is what makes cheap supermarket coffee so bad. It’s full of overly bitter subpar coffee. Consequently this is a trick the extreme caffeine coffees use, to blend in Robusta for its higher caffeine content.
In addition the bargain decaf in stores is generally the lower quality beans as well. Some are over ripe and some are under ripe. Combined with the fact that the beans might be from farms all over some region with varying process methods and standards and your bound to get low quality coffee. Then the beans are roasted to a mass market appeal, generally a medium, ground for everything from autodrip to Aeropress, and vacuum packed in plastic cans that sit in a warehouse for six months before you buy it. This is not the recipe for great coffee.
One note regarding Robusta. Many have noted that blended with other coffees it is often used in espresso coffees. I suspect this probably works really well in good espresso with good equipment. But my point here is the cheap coffee using it for filler and not to achieve the best blend.
Brewing methods
Brewing method is one of the biggest factors to drinking great coffee. Ever notice the church coffee is most of the time terrible? It’s most likely that nice old lady brewing it put far too little in and then let it sit for 2 hours on the burner. Or if you have ever been to a convenience store with coffee pots on burners and realized after you paid the coffee was probably made 5 hours ago and with half motor oil from the greasy garage next door.
Ok I’m exaggerating but you get the idea. Really brewing methods are going to make or break coffee. Good coffee can taste great from careful brewing but excellent coffee will always taste like dirt when brewed poorl.
How do you brew coffee correctly? It all depends on the method. With Autodrip you have very few options but to really just use the proper amount of coffee, no dirty sock water please! Also a clean coffee pot and brewer goes a long way to help freshness. As well, using good quality water is a must. Honestly, this might be the biggest reason some peoples coffee tastes awful. They use crappy tasting water to begin with, that is either over chlorinated or has contaminants in it!
With other methods like Chemex you have more knobs to turn with brewing. For example water temperature is a huge variable to be able to adjust. With autodrip you get what you get, about 205 F/96C in my brewer for reference. With Chemex you can carefully adjust the water to the perfect temperature. Generally I aim for about 195F/90C for starting to pour over. As well with Chemex you can add a 20 second bloom period for the coffee to bloom. What is bloom? Basically it’s allowing the trapped CO2 in the bean to escape and water to penetrate into the beans to extract that marvelous coffee!
Adding the right amount of coffee is critical as well. The classic mistake my mother always makes is never measuring and generally using too little coffee. Hence why my brother termed it dirty sock water 🙂 This is probably the biggest variable you can control in your brewing. Obviously too little coffee will make a bad cup. But do you know how much is too little? Most big coffee brands will recommend something like one tablespoon to six ounces of water. This in my opinion is too little. A good rule of thumb is probably double what most brands say for a good strong cup. Remember those numbers are probably based on taste test trials of everyone from the biker guy next door to grandma. Trying to please everyone usually means pleasing no one.
TIP: If you brew your coffee too strong the best way to adjust the strength is with pure hot water. This is just like making an Americano!
Buying fresh roasted, blending or roasting yourself
The biggest factor with brewing great coffee is obvious, the coffee. If you want the most flavorful awesome coffee ever, you are not going to find it in a supermarket. Don’t get me wrong, I drink a lot of supermarket coffees. Read my post about the 20 must try decafs. I even have a few favorites like Starbucks or Seattles Best.
But these coffees are never going to be able to compete with good local artisan roasted coffee. Why? Simply they are not roasted fresh. Most of the big brand coffee was probably roasted six months before you bought it. With the miracle of modern vacuum bags it’s not as big a deal as it was before this technology existed. Still it will never beat out fresh roasted coffee. And really supporting a local roaster is just awesome. They are hard working people that would really love to have repeat customers who enjoy great coffee. Don’t worry about saving twenty five cents a pound, if you really love your coffee.
Getting decaf on the go
One of my favorite parts of being a decaf drinker is usually when I get it in a coffee shop or on the go it’s made fresh. Most places due to tight economics these days don’t keep decaf brewed on hand. While it does take a while longer to get my coffee it’s hot and fresh. Starbucks is one of the best places to get decaf because it’s always made fresh. And as a bonus you can usually ask for any of their decaf varieties. With the regular coffee it’s already brewed and you get what’s available that day. Yes, I’m sure you can always special order whatever kind you want but that barista will probably spell your name wrong on the cup in passive aggressive revenge!
What about restaurants or places that do brew it ahead of time. Here you are pretty much out of luck really. Some restaurants do take pride in their coffee and try to give good coffee. Most chain restaurants probably use low grade or instant coffee. Your best bet in these cases is too ask how long ago the coffee was made. If it’s in the last 15 minutes your one step closer to a good cup. Most likely it’s probably made every hour or so and sits.
You also might find that some restaurants make it one demand with some fancy machine. If this is the case then your in great shape! However if they say they use a coffee pod machine please throw you pie on the floor in disgust and order toilet water instead, LOL. Seriously though if they only serve coffee pod based coffees it’s almost impossible you will get even a passable cup of decaf so just order some nice herbal tea or bourbon instead. One final tip to try if all else fails is to order a specialty drink like espresso or cappuccino. These drinks always require to be made fresh and with proper equipment.
TIP: You can always order a specialty drink like an espresso or cappuccino. Often these drinks require more special brewing methods and are required to be made fresh every order.
Don’t buy k cups or instant
Ok, I’ll make this short. If you are buying instant the problem is you. Instant coffee let alone decaf is not going to yield good tasting coffee. It’s just too processed and abused to give you a superior cup. Just ain’t going to happen. Period. The end.
This part is also obvious but don’t buy k cups and expect great coffee. It’s not the reason you might expect either. Overall coffee pods are designed to appeal to the masses with generic coffee flavor. Most people don’t really drink coffee because they enjoy it like a fine wine. They drink it because there stimulant junkies and need a fix after being up late watching Netflix. These pods reflect that trend. Every notice your friends or coworkers bragging about how cheap they got their pods? Telltale sign of a coffee junkie not a classy aficionado like you!
As well any coffee pod has a huge Achilles heel in the fact the brewers just don’t allow enough time to really extract the coffee. It’s never going to produce a good cup of coffee. It can be OK enough that Katy in accounting won’t complain but if you really taste it side by side with good brewed coffee the difference is stark!
Thanks for reading and hopefully you have some new ideas to up your decaf game to make your decaf taste awesome!