How Fermented Sugar Cane Decaffeinates Coffee

[@CoffeinCompagnie]

Thank you @jameshoffmann, for showcasing our decaffeination facility, and particulary the EA (Sugar Cane) proccess. Bringing attention to the decaf topic, we really appreciated your visit 🙌

[@VintageBlacklist]

Thank you for allowing us all to enjoy your fine facility.

[@teuth]

decaf sucks

[@kjyu]

why the baseless hate? ​@@teuth

[@George-ni5ic]

It’s gratifying to see the amazing analytical labs that ensure the coffee we drink is safe. The capital investment in that factory is hard to really comprehend. Thanks for letting us take the tour. Anyone that disparages decaf is clueless.

[@keedxx]

Give the marketing team a raise for creating the KZbin account real quick yesterday. 😎

[@LanceHedrick]

Dad posts, I watch.

[@RedwoodEmpire925]

Simple.

[@WhatShallMyUsernameBe]

Shrimpl perfect

[@daisychainreaction]

i like to imagine there's a professional decaffeinators group chat where these german professionals are stoked at how much interest their industry is getting :)

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

Not so much a group chat but most industries do have their own social media sphere if you look up the right tags

[@michaellampson7085]

I understand the broad amount of audience are home coffee enthusiasts but you have no idea how helpful this series is to barista's and coffee professionals to help with understanding. Thank you James

[@FatherofEunice]

The sound engineer in the last two videos has been doing incredible work!!

[@Discontentedparrot]

Something feels off about this Tom Scott video

[@skylershields598]

The red shirt, the flood of information, even a brief aside on a park bench. It's all there!

[@talisolin]

😂 I wonder if this was intentional

[@noggin73]

Or Inside the Factory...

[@MyIQisSchfifty5]

New haircut

[@EvanLay]

It took me ages to find a decaffeinated coffee that tasted good when I was pregnant. Now I just keep it around in the freezer in case I want late night coffee and dessert. Can’t wait to try the one I ordered for the tasting!

[@limmoblack]

Oh, what coffee is it???

[@sjaron23]

Thank you for this series - I only drink decaffeinated coffee these days. I’m fond of telling people that it is not caffeine FREE, and it does give a lift of energy.

[@davasg96]

I have received my Decaf Project beans an can’t wait for the tasting!

[@deluxgaming6742]

I think it's super interesting! That's the reason why I am a patron for so long now. I was recently in London and was amazed by the scene over there and amazed by all the different cafés that have squaremile and other roasters. makes me proud to be working in this industry! :) Thanks James and Team for the continued effort to educate.

[@fiona4450]

This series of videos makes me think I should go find out if the bag of decaf I bought tells how it was decaffeinated. Thanks for the video. It's pretty fascinating.

[@arfarfagus]

You were here in Germany? It would have been my absolute pleasure to make you a cup of very likely disappointing coffee. Next time, good sir.

[@habbathejutt5749]

There are 2 world leading decaffeination facilities. Both located in the same town.

[@jameshoffmann]

Bremen is also the town were decaffeination was pretty much invented...

[@KNURKonesur]

@@jameshoffmann ahhh yess, the Germans and interesting new technologies :D

[@harperrob]

Probably most of the decaf I drink is Colombian sugar cane/EA process, and it seems to work well. Looking forward to the direct comparison with other methods though.

[@nathanrussell6032]

Another fantastic J.H video

[@stationcolossus]

Super interesting James + Team!

[@ladyflimflam]

James does industrial tours, goody, goody!

[@Finvaara]

I love this video series, and you went into good detail in this one specifically. This is a lot of fun for me so far.

[@KNURKonesur]

Absolutely love this series of videos! Just got a bag of EA decaf Peru from Quarter Horse in the mail today, couldn't wait and brewed it immediately, even 1 day off roast it's tasting quite nice. I'm a big fan of pushing more decaf, cause that will mean more good quality decaf will be available :)

[@SpencerDonahue]

what im curious about is who is using this specific company to do their EA decaf. I was under the impression that Colombia was doing their own EA decaffeination domestically since they have a reasonably large sugar cane industry. Was I mistaken in this assumption?

[@jameshoffmann]

There is a large EA plant in Colombia too, but they are not the only plant using EA.

[@SpencerDonahue]

@@jameshoffmann Thank you!

[@malachikoch1024]

Good, I’ve been needing this question answered all my life

[@CoffeinCompagnie]

Here you have it 😊

[@justeuaq]

thank you mister 🙏🏼looking forward to the next one

[@mmctaylor4608]

I cannot wait for my kit to arrive!

[@mariapage147]

EA decaffeinated coffees are my favourites. I think there's an interaction between decaffeination method and origin characteristics but it's difficult to test systematically... EA seems to work well for Colombian and Ethiopian coffees.

[@LegendBegins]

This is awesome! Love this mini series.

[@dontkilImejay]

Fantastic video, thanks James.

[@robertmills6772]

80-100 samples tasted each day! I'd love to be on that team!

[@DrThalnos]

Was New Zealand missing in that Moss map at the end 10:32 ? Poor Kiwis

[@cinquine1]

r/MapsWithoutNZ

[@tlniec]

Great series! I'm looking forward to the Swiss Water process video.

[@MyIQisSchfifty5]

Title change on point.

[@marekvahle]

Asmr voice over james is what I'm here for

[@Henchman1977]

I'm surprised they don't make you mask up in the caffeine handling parts of the plant

[@CoffeinCompagnie]

There is no danger without a mask. We have a closed system ;)

[@notbatman1001]

Cool map of the world.

[@anthonydevono8833]

Very good video but I will just mention James if you are going to go into a factory loading area you must wear a hi viz for safety

[@jungmusohn5230]

Im here under 1 hour of upload? What a good day!

[@gedog77]

Follow up question 🙋 the evolutionary purpose of caffeine is thought to be as a defence against insects. Has anyone tried it as a pesticide?

[@bumblebeef]

My favorite decaf from a local roaster (Broadsheet, in Cambridge MA) is done with this process. I'm very excited for the tasting set to understand how these processes change the flavor. This is a bit niche, but in all of your travels and quest for data, did you happen to notice if any of these processes affected coffee from different regions or altitudes differently?

[@joetilman7227]

I've tried a couple of water decaf process coffee, and EA, and i prefer the EA hands down. I will try a CO² process some day soon...

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

Would have enjoyed seeing the before/after tasting to be honest! They say that 'it's not really extracting that much other stuff' and alright I'll believe you, but I can't imagine that steam process doesn't have any impact. Surely it must at least roast differently, for a start...

[@martyhopkirk6826]

Every time I see there's a new JH video nowadays, I think "Fellow Aiden?".

[@jameshoffmann]

Soon!

[@martyhopkirk6826]

@@jameshoffmann And now I'm excited ...! Looking forward to it.

[@supercres]

EA decaf I find pulls espresso the most similar to caffeinated! looking forward to the direct comparison in the kit.

[@allochthon]

I was hoping this video would explain exactly how the ethyl acetate is produced. Marketing for "sugar cane process" decaf coffee often implies that it's just the EA that exists naturally in sugar cane, extracted somehow, which seems unlikely since I think that's a pretty small amount, and there are several efficient industrial processes that can produce large amounts chemically (including food-grade EA). A classic process is to ferment sugar into ethyl alcohol, further ferment some of that into acetic acid (vinegar), and then mix the alcohol with the acetic acid (plus a catalyst), which reacts to make ethyl acetate. So obviously that could be done starting with sugar cane. This video does say at 2:40 that EA is a "byproduct from sugar cane molasses fermentation", but I don't think making molasses automatically results in a usable quantity of EA, or even involves fermentation, does it? I thought the only "byproduct" of molasses was sugar. I don't know for sure... and anyway, I'd like to know what the process is (chemical reaction and/or purification) that eventually results in the EA they use, whether it happens during molasses production or later by further processing. (Sources: mostly the Wikipedia pages for EA and molasses)

[@PrecludeLP]

I love this. Thank you.

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

I was curious to see how coffee arrives at such a large site logistically, I was surprised to see it in a previous video showing a smaller facility being stored loose in a sea can and tilt-dumped out. It makes sense for the smaller batches that plant was working with but I wondered if this mega-facility was more along the lines of hopper-bottom trucks delivering beans dropped off by bulk carriers like typical grains.

[@jorschachblatant1934]

It sounds like it taste better

[@hrperformance]

very interesting!

[@delecti]

That final jar/bottle of caffeine looked to have about 10mL of caffeine. If I did my math right based on the LD50 and density of caffeine, that'd be a lethal dose for roughly 50% of people who weigh about 70kg. That's actually a bit than I realized.

[@devonmoonie6860]

A little bird says he was recently at the Swisswater factory as well.

[@listofromantics]

I love organic chemistry.

[@alyssia777]

Don't get me wrong, I think the RGB lighting is done super well and it's really pleasing aesthetically. But I still find its mere presence funny; like Coffein telling me "Do you even RGB bro?" lol

[@Sourpusscandy]

Hi James, thanks for the very informative tour. How did everything smell? So the beans were shipped raw? I never drink decaf.

[@RedSunT]

The off-white color of the first crystallized caffeine comes from other substances washed out of the coffee beans. Would be interesting to know, what else gets extracted from the beans beside the caffeine and how much it is relative to those substances left in the bean. How much do those missing substances impact the flavour of the coffee?

[@mkemp63]

So you're saying I should soak my beans in rum. That gives me caffeinated rum and decaf rum-flavoured coffee.

[@Bear-re5xm]

Is decaf appreciably more expensive than regular coffee? it feels like it should be

[@ruisearts]

I was just talking about you earlier, hii.

[@Mitra3050]

This was the 2nd episode of how to decaffeinate coffee, right? Good video tho. ♥️

[@thelemonman03]

wowzers

[@StephanBendallEng]

I have tried many decafs from specialty roasters here in Canada and every EA decaf I try results in a weird sensitization. I become more sensitive to light and feel kind of a mild inflammation-like feeling in my upper (frontal) sinuses. I would love to figure out what exactly about the process is doing this. Perhaps it's associated with where Canadian roasters send their coffee or perhaps it's just built into the process. I am quite excited to try the EA decaf as part of the decaf project to see if it has the same effect.

[@luke2415]

will the decaf project tasting bags ever come back in stock? they sold out so quickly lol i was gonna get one for me and a friend as a christmas gift :(

[@mollymccann5043]

"coffee toys" - yes, I think we all have lots of those. The tasting that this facility does - how are they roasting? Or are they tasting green coffee?

[@CoffeinCompagnie]

We are roasting with a sample roaster :) 06:09 behind James back, the blue one

[@krimke881]

I wonder what method specialty coffee uses

[@CoffeinCompagnie]

We also have specialty decafs with EA(Sugarcane)🤘

[@pb2959]

I have a 135km trail race coming up. Where can I order one of those 1 ton bulk bags of caffeine?

[@reallymakesyouthink]

The staff aren't very alert first thing in the morning.

[@FamilyFriendly42069]

Does the Ethyl Acetate process "produce" more caffeine per day for other commercial or medical uses than the other ones?

[@AdamRapW]

What do these factories smell like? If the smell of steamed green beans permeates the air, I imagine it's not great.

[@jakobw135]

Is the ethyl acetate solvent - COMPLETELY - removed at the end of the process?

[@PlanckRelic]

For all practical purposes, yes. That's the point of the steam step, and part of the lab analysis afterwards

[@benm5678]

It's odd humanity invested so much in this...a simpler option seems to be to consume an amount of caffeine you can tolerate.

[@flaviovianna4889]

I really would like to know more about the implications of ethyl acetate in the human body, even though the process suposely removes all this chemical from the beans.

[@RedSunT]

Ethyl acetate is present in fruits like banana, melon or strawberry. The implication would be that our body knows how to process small quantities of ethyl acetate.

[@JoolsBurke]

Why would one company decaffeinate coffee using all three processes, rather than optimise a single process? Is it customer demand? Or taste (as we may find out)?

[@jameshoffmann]

Each process will have a slightly different balance of price and quality, so container choice drives it I guess

[@dan7777]

imagine how good a meltdown at the facility would smell

[@gmljosea]

What do they do with all that caffeine? There surely can't be enough demand for it all.

[@PlanckRelic]

Are there more cups of decaf or cans of caffeinated soda drunk on any given day? There's plenty of demand

[@jikuty]

6 Metres tall?? They look more like 60!

[@yippdogg9250]

Major Smarter Everyday or Strange Parts Vibes, Love ya Hoff, this was epic and cannot wait for part 2!

[@jameshaulenbeek5931]

This (I think) is part 2! He released one on the water extraction process already. It's really cool! Go check it out if you haven't already a

[@calix69420]

damn

[@late8123]

🤔

[@alemonalemonalemon]

Evil Acetate

[@piersto]

Coffee is a synonym of caffeine for me!!! So decaf coffee like wine without alcohol. NO NO NO, how like to say some famous KZbinr!!!

[@gedog77]

What I’m noticing in each of these processes is that the raw coffee is heated to brewing temperature in a steam or water environment , it’s brewed before it’s roasted. No wonder it doesn’t last as long or have as much structure when it gets to us.

[@IanHarrisP]

first

[@matthewdetzler3175]

First to comment. I'm awesome. Way to go James. Great content!

[@SpencerDonahue]

womp womp

[@jamespurchase4035]

I keep hearing 'evil acetate'. Is it just me? 😂

[@mikebusby1471]

Thats put me off drinking decaf!

[@Starlight_Akira]

_You know, if you have the aptitude, you should try the mage's college in Winterhold._

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

This sounds exceptionally abusive to the coffee. I believe its safe but steaming it for, what was it, like 2 1/2 hours? I find it hard to believe that it doesn't drastically effect some of the compounds in the coffee. Although I suspect its going to just turn into Starbucks or Folgers or something so probably isn't that important

[@gregoryberrycone]

obviously not complaining about what videos you choose to make, its your channel after all. but id be lying if i said i found decaf coffee even slightly interesting as subject matter

[@iHorus]

Oh they probably used people like yourself to work on this plant, and didn't pay them money

[@uzbekistanplaystaion4BIOScrek]

in germany? yeah good luck with that.

[@iHorus]

@@uzbekistanplaystaion4BIOScrek In 1940s? oh easily

[@talananiyiyaya8912]

I have no need to know any of this.

[@pmbrig]

Then why did you watch it?

[@talananiyiyaya8912]

@pmbrig I didn't

[@RedSunT]

@@talananiyiyaya8912 do you comment on all videos you don't watch?

[@talananiyiyaya8912]

@@RedSunT Some

[@teuth]

omg who cares! decaf sucks. good for you, you defeated the purpose of coffee

[@Skozerny]

The purpose of coffee is whatever you want it to be, the coffee doesnt care.