Decaf Explained

As a decaf-only drinker, I'd love to see a video of you trying everyone's decaf bean recommendations and sharing your thoughts. Thanks for making this great video.

As someone who has recently had to switch to mostly decaf for medical reasons this video is exactly what I needed

I used to work for Swiss Water Decaf for seven years, running the cupping lab & buying green coffee, and this video is a really well researched and fair overview of decaf today. One thing I'd add is that the single largest contributing factor to the quality of decaf is really the quality of the green coffee going into the process. Garbage in = garbage out. Quality coffee in is going to yield a far greater decaf! The flipside of that, is that cost becomes the biggest single barrier to truly great decaf, as most roasters want their decaf coffee to be cheap, but processing itself adds costs as well, so folks often end up opting for cheaper quality green to decaffeinate, resulting in a sub-optimal finished product. You also made a really great point about the poor presentation of decaf within the cafe environment and how that contributes to sales and perception. A number of years back we ran a popup in New York (I won't post a link, but it can be found if you google it) serving nothing but decaf coffees. It was a really fun experiment, and a testament to the fact that quality decafs, presented well, can be both interesting and delicious. Lots of other thoughts, but Ill refrain from the essay for now. Great video!

As a barista for 8 years, I always hated the idea of decaf, until recently I got to the point where I craved coffee but didn't want the jitters. Immediately then I understood why decaf existed and never knocked it since.

I have never felt more accomplished than James Hoffmann calling me a top tier coffee drinker <3

Avoided consuming caffeine years ago and kept drinking coffee, appreciate James calling us folks top tier, and can’t count how many times i was told what’s the point of drinking decaf coffee.

I grew up in an Ethiopian household where there's an entire culture around coffee drinking (I won't go into it since there are plenty of videos). Growing up, my mother always made coffee in the afternoon and invited neighbors to come hang out. While she was roasting the coffee beans, my siblings and I would often pick up roasted beans from the pan and eat them. These were always some of the most fun times of my childhood so I've always had a positive association with the taste and smell of coffee. I drink decaf because I don't need the caffeine to enjoy it. In fact, I'm not a huge fan of caffeine because of the swings in my energy level and its effect on my sleep. I only use it on tough days when I'm tired or sleep deprived and need to get some work done.

Imagine being so confident that you offer to make JAMES HOFFMAN an espresso ... And then trick him with decaf. Basically switched to the hardest setting and still aced the final boss fight.

We've uploaded a follow-up video with a couple of corrections and amendments: https://youtu.be/IszQ2JR3Olc

As someone who doesn't drink caffeine but likes coffee, the most disappointing part of drinking decaf is the lack of variety