The Decaf Project - A Live Tasting!

[@BruceChanen]

I'm I the only one whose takeaway is that James Hoffman is a good man with a good heart and the kind of teacher I would have liked for myself or for my kids. In a world gone mad with angry, power-hungry trolls (I'm in the USA, so feeling that particularly hard lately), it's therapeutic to watch someone with a generous humble demeanor displaying both expertise and respect to the audience. Rather than saying the world could use more James Hoffmans right now, I'll just say look for the James Hoffmans in your life. You'll be better for it.

[@brianhawthorne7603]

You are not alone in thinking that

[@raymobula]

It’s like British baking show. Perfect escape.

[@h3xag0nal]

“ I’m I the only one “ Splendid work old chap

[@joshuasasmor6565]

I’m late to the party - I waited until this morning to do this tasting. It was my first cupping experience. I hope that the survey results will be discussed in the future. Thank you so much for doing this, James. I’ve been decaffeinated for years by my doctor's orders and I was so happy to see you bringing decaf to the table.

[@Mooza1]

Which decaff method was your favourite?

[@joshuasasmor6565]

I found it was a close call between the CO2 and the Swiss water methods, but for me Swiss water won. I agreed with James that the roaster's profile made a huge difference. Most of my other decaf coffees are Swiss water decaffeinated and this particular batch was very different.

[@decaf_co]

This was truly awesome to be apart of. Thanks for doing this James and thanks to our Australian contingent. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

[@Flojomcfly]

And thanks to you Decaf co! Drinking your roasts currently!

[@willfowles3654]

You do great work and can’t wait to try these! I couldn’t do 2am but getting ready to have a go shortly. I’ve also got a kit from Redeemer for comparison’s sake. Fun times ahead!

[@willfowles3654]

And while not a huge difference, let’s just say I won’t be cancelling my DecafCo subscription anytime soon!

[@decaf_co]

@@willfowles3654 you're one of our OG customers Will, a man of the people. They'll write stories of you one day!

[@needmorebeans]

Thank you Brendon for your coffees! Thanks James for coordinating this with our local roasters.

[@Phoenixonesix]

One week late, I've never done anything like this. Did it blind. The first taste was the un processed had a lot more flavours and sweeter. The EA tasted burnt, but as it cooled, it got much better. The co2 and sw tasted pretty much the same. After about 5 mins of very dubiuos, some not very successful, slurps, my taste buds refused to be neutralised by a mouthful of water, and everything started to taste the same. As the cups had cooled below what i considered pleasant, I swigged a mouthful of each. The caffeinated was still the nicest followed by the ea. The other 2 still tasted like each other. Thank you, James, for setting this up. I'm so glad i could be a part of it

[@Sismodium]

Watching this 24 hours after the fact, because timezones and life commitments. Just wanted to drop a message to James and the team behind the scenes (including the 60 unnamed roasters) - Congratulations on pulling this international tasting off.

[@tctruffin]

Did the tasting on Dec. 18. Thank you to everyone who made it possible! I was intrigued by the fact that there WERE differences, but none of them were the kinds of differences that would make me avoid a certain process. This makes my life so much easier!

[@A.K.-di3mc]

Yes, there were differences but all were good and pleasant to drink.

[@Dstandsfor]

This was fun! Thanks for putting decaf in the spotlight!

[@RTH911]

Thanks for roasting awesome coffees!

[@ozkavoshdjalla]

Yippie I got your coffee, can't wait to try.

[@duncanhampshire2382]

My main takeaway - expect better decaf! As someone who moved off caffeinated coffee a while back - I think I've always thought that decaf is a little worse, but it isn't! Thanks for organising James - it has honestly been so informative and helped me to feel content in my decaf life.

[@colossusX1]

I feel like decaf coffee and non-alcoholic beer are on similar trajectories. All “classic” offerings were lackluster in both categories. Now there are roasters and brewers specializing in decaf and N.A. respectively, pushing what consumers expect in quality higher.

[@AdamMansbridge]

My take away (from one roaster) was the decaf was a little less balanced than caffeinated, but really good. I usually have caffeinated coffee, but it's nice to know there are good options when I don't want the caffeine

[@paraalso]

I hope we can get some statistics on which processes people liked more, and maybe some analysis based on people's regular taste preferences?

[@collindwebb]

Where is the online form to give him our tasting data?

[@ThatAnalystJaredKulp]

Agreed! I LOVED analyzing the data from the Great American Coffee Taste Test. It got me so interested that I tried my first specialty coffee pour-over ever, what an experience Did you know 1 in 5 respondents wanted to try a coffee that costs over $20? Wild

[@ArthurDentDK]

He mentions this at 57:18. It is coming! 👏👏

[@lukewestfall1689]

I brought my four samples a week ago to a wonderful friend who hosted us for a blind tasting. What an amazing experience! It brought us together and really shed some light on the world of decaf, and what we should expect from "good" decaf coffee.

[@lukewestfall1689]

I'll also add that, for our roaster at least, the un-decaffeinated was very obvious, and we all picked out the Swiss Water Decaf as well. The other two were different, but we couldn't tell which was CO2 and which was ethyl acetate.

[@Lintukoko]

Before even getting to the tasting, it is such a soothing delight watching James and the giant peachy kettle, especially with his delight in achieving “perfection” of the right amount of water for such a large number of cups to manage to neither miss when pouring nor splash/overfill nor burn himself handling quite a hefty little tank to be tilting.

[@reservacoffeeroasters4118]

Thank you to James and team for this once in a lifetime event! This was a fun way to end the year!

[@justinarthur3773]

Thanks for doing this. I did this with my whole family this evening. We all had fun. It's amazing to see the different tastes in the family. My favourite was my wife's least favourite. I bought from 2 Different Roasters here in Australia. Well done on all the logistics. That must have been mammoth. I found it fascinating that I found such a difference between roasters. Well done to Sample Coffee Roasters. Love your work.

[@Muddysmind]

As a coffee nerd who normally is too busy to "taste" the coffee, this was a much needed exercise. Thank you James and team.

[@Spartan-301st]

My first coffee tasting ever and my first time doing something with this “community” here. Simply brilliant, thank you James! Learned quite a lot about decaf processes and I think I’ve formed some interesting preferences. Will certainly revisit this with other types of coffee tastings!

[@Spartan-301st]

One note: I will never be a “slurping” sort of taster. The sound, even without headphones, is really horrendous lmao we had ample warning! Sipping works just great for me 😂

[@justinrutledge1221]

James it has been really neat to watch you do three of these now. You are so much more relaxed and unscripted in this cupping!

[@PAD32]

I did taste those samples blind, and there was 2 samples that really stand out. The samples has very different roast levels, but I tried to take this factor aside : - the acetate ethyl decaf had a strong almond smell and taste, which was quite pleasant - the water decaf had an obvious paper taste It was bought from the french roaster

[@halcyonacoustic7366]

I had a strong nutty taste in the Swiss Water process, and I quite enjoyed it. The EA had some of that, but less.

[@chrisdturner]

I found the swiss method was the most complex decaf but had a slight paper note and also hint of tomato like savoury note. CO2 was a bit muted in taste but balanced. Ethyl was my favourite decaf, kept more of the apple taste. The caffeinated had a strong almond smell to me that was lost in the others.

[@christophelaferriere207]

100% agree with you on this one @PAD32 - same french roaster here, and the least I could say is that I did not enjoy the swiss water coffee AT ALL! it was clearly sub-par with a very bad wet paper / cardboard taste! nothing even remotely comparable with the 3 other coffees. EA was my favorite while CO2 was a close 2nd.

[@versita3827]

Couldn't take part live, so I've followed along about a week later. Lots of fun for my first cupping experience!

[@ashleyjbrew]

I've just done this. I learned so much. The acidity varied hugely between my bags. I had more acidity than I've ever experienced before (too high in two of my bags). Lactic and citric acidity. I think the cupping brought these out too much for my taste. Either I'll try another cupping or V60. Smelling at each stage was very useful too and had surprising changes. Loved taking part. Thank you James 😊

[@OyvindBjorgo]

I got my kit from Kaffa here in Norway, and ended up liking the non-decaf and CO² processed ones the most. Those were the two coffees most similar to one another, and went on the longest "journey" in how the taste developed. EA felt the most muted out of the four, and went straight to "the end" of the flavour journey compared to the other three. I'd be interested in buying more coffee from all three processes, though. I've been on a bit of a decaf kick lately, since I love drinking coffee at all times of day, but I'm also at that point in my life where sleep requires some planning and effort.

[@livermoro]

I also got from Kaffa, and interestingly CO2 was the only one I didn't take a liking to! It tasted sort of thin and had the same aftertaste as "office coffee" (just standard evergood moccamaster). Early on the swiss water was a favorite, but towards the end it was overtaken by ethyl acetate. EA had a delightful acidity, and SW a bit more sweet. Will be interesting to try espressos from them, will turbo-shot to have an easier time dialing in.

[@AtheistRising]

I had the opposite result 😂.

[@DanRichardson]

Thanks for putting this together James, team and all the roasters who took part. Found it really interesting, will be trying more of Decaf Co's EA and CO2 in the future I think :)

[@echo282]

Bravo bravo bravo! So much fun, so exciting, so great to have horizons expanded!

[@mrrrrrr3116]

A big thank you for doing all the work to put this together! This was fun for myself and some friends, and I will spend my life not worrying about a coffee's decaf process. It may have been my last point of life anxiety, so I think I'm good now

[@sigmaeagle2551]

Thank you Reserva Coffee for being part of this! I really enjoyed the experience (although there were a few spots where I started to break down like when I missed the livestream or when I thought I had botched the brew, lol). I was really surprised that I liked the Ethyl Acetate MORE than the original coffee. I'm looking forward to making V60s and Aeropresses out of these as well! Of course, a huge thank you to James and his team for putting all this together! This was my first global tasting experience and I will never forget it.

[@reservacoffeeroasters4118]

Your support was crucial to this multi-sensory experience, thank you!

[@mvtant666]

I also had the Reserva kit and enjoyed the EA the most! Still have 30 grams of each left and intend on exploring more, but two tastings so far, one cupping and one V60, and the V60 revealed more to me. Reserva killed it!

[@tomb2289]

I had a different roaster but the EA was really impressive from them too. Never thought one of the decafs would be right up with the original, great news, especially at this time of night!

[@justinrutledge1221]

Unexpected ASMR of James gently filling cupping bowls

[@jimmyryan5880]

I know I had to turn it off

[@brianhawthorne7603]

I want a supercut of just the ASMR cup filling. I’d watch that on repeat.

[@odinallfather8241]

We did blind cup, and I have to say, the EA/sugarcane was my favorite, and I would agree... a bit more fruity and maybe a bit sweet. I was glad we did blind because I think I would have been biased. BTW, I was blown away that my least favorite was the regular caf.

[@GameSofter]

Absolutely loved this. Thank you so much to all involved. And shoutout to S&W Craft Roasting, very nice tasting kit all round.

[@rickfeels]

swiss water was so good! So much fruit flavor and heavy body came through for the beans I received from Topeca here in OK

[@sirius_psyche]

Super excited to take part in this. Initially, the aroma and look of the caffeinated coffee vs the decafs was extremely obvious. Even just that first hit of aroma when tearing open the package. But after the brewing things become a lot closer. What a fun experience!! Swiss was my favorite decaff process of the roaster I had.

[@LOCKEYJ]

I just did the tasting this morning as I was busy last weekend. I am very unconfident in my tasting skills and don’t know if my notes were utterly wild and insane or accurate. Felt embarrassed submitting the feedback form! My experience was this: I enjoyed them all, there was one process that I didn’t like as much as the others but it looked like a more developed roast out the bag. I would have been really happy with any of them if they were in isolation. If nothing else I’ve found a roaster in my region that I hadn’t tried before and I will be sure to buy from them again

[@danielbum912]

Thanks for guiding us through this, James, it was great fun and you did a _fantastic_ job! Now while my findings are probably next to worthless on a quantitative scale, I did find a clear favourite for me, which is more than I expected! I thought there were massive differences between the methods, I just found it hard to write down. I will save my taste sheet so maybe in a big-data sense it can be of some worth. Thanks for the experience to everyone involved!

[@rkhayden]

My first attempt at cupping, and I found it very informative. Based on James' comments, after my tasting session I went back to the website of the roaster I bought from to see which decaf method their regular decafs used. And it was the method I found scored highest in most categories in my tasting.

[@lefty77713]

This is interesting, because my experience so far was the opposite - I always buy SW, and it was my lowest - it has a very distinct "off" flavor of paper mixed with cocoa powder that I can now immediately ID as swiss water in any decaf.

[@TheRollingStone11]

I got my kit from Brio Coffeeworks. I’m pleasantly surprised to see our experiences somewhat aligned. To me: EA retained more of the acid flavors. Carbonic was closest to the caffeinated flavor, but a little funky. Swiss Water retained the body and roast. Caffeinated was my favorite, but Swiss Water was a close second. The body goes a long way for making up for the slightly more watery taste of all the decafs. Plus, it had the best clarity. I also suspected S Water has the most variance from roaster to roaster. Which you confirmed. I see some people didn’t like the S Water. I hope they try it from more roasters. Brio was great! You did an excellent job selecting the coffee, everyone enjoyed it. Thank you to all the decaffeination companies and roasters that got involved!

[@justPiero]

First of all, this is great: the initiative, the method, the explanation. Right now I'm listening to it with my headphones whilst working and the result is slurp-asmr plus precious coffee information. I'm surprisingly fine with that.

[@normr2]

Thank you James this was so fun! We had a group of 3 participants and one first-timer cupping. Very fun and educational! The supporting videos were also very fascinating!

[@Freestylor91]

First time cupping; It was a great experience and I will do it more often in the future! Thank you James 🫶🏻

[@Henchman1977]

I'm only here for the slurps

[@TheBroX]

Incredible! Thank you so much for this wonderful experience! Took my time and waited to have a day off to try it all out. I did find that Swiss water left the coffee with exactly the same taste as before decaffeination. CO2 I found a little bit more acidic, while EA was sweeter. I think that overall all 4 cups are gratelly enjoyable. I have made all of them on a V60. Had to store the ready coffee in thermo cups while working on the others. All turned out grate! Again, many thanks to the team of James, and a big thank you to all roasters (my one was from Recent Beans)! 😊

[@katherinetonks]

First time tasting but long time decaf drinker. So fascinating to learn that there was not that much difference between the decaf methods. I did prefer the caffeinated - it just seemed a bit better balanced where all the decafs seemed quite roasty. I am surprised that the Swiss Water tasted a bit more “decaffy” with just a fraction less punch but I realise my favourite roaster is my favourite roaster because of beans/roast.

[@gustaflembre4191]

This was so so intruiging! I was fascinated by my own ability to differentiate between different decaf processes, let alone decaf from the non-processed. Great guiding!

[@BansheeBunny]

I like your control over peoples opinions, to reduce any bias.

[@elizabethbales7574]

I just finished my tasting. It is my first time to do anything like this and it was fun! I personally did notice a difference in flavor between the caffeinated and the 3 decafs. They were also slightly different as they cooled. With that said, the decafs were each good and worth drinking. Also, kudos to Goodman Coffee Roasters! I had the regular coffee a few days ago and it is delicious! All 4 are very good Thank you for making this fun experiment available for so many of us!! ❤❤

[@Sally4th_]

Many thanks for organising this. I was really surprised to enjoy the decafs (especially the CO2) better than the original,. Now more convinced than ever there is no excuse or need to accept second-rate decaf.

[@ethanmeginnes80]

This was fantastic to participate in. It is so nice to see so many good decaf beans becoming available. Interesting the comment about not too expect big differences in taste. I had a clear winner for my taste palette. More of these please. My first organized coffee tasting and it was wonderful.

[@Tomashovy]

That was great experience, hope it's not the last live tasting Shout out to everyone involved, James and his team, roasters, producers and all of us who lived that togheter :)

[@edawriter]

Our taste test result. We used Rose Park coffee in Los Angeles. We're not coffee experts. We prefer cream and sugar, and dark roast. Our favorite coffee is from the Philippines, only available from that country. First, the caffeinated coffee had the most flavor by a lot. The C02 method had the most acidic taste, and was flavorful in a fruity way. Swiss and Ethyl process tasted the same, bland. Based on how hard they were to hand-grind, I'm guessing these were all medium roast. Thanks for doing the taste test! We drink a lot of decaf, and with cream and sugar it's just as good as non-decaf. Decaf is also good for people with heart palpitations.

[@unknownentity222]

Unexpected with the the decaf I tried! Always assumed I was open to drinking decaf, but didn't really go out of my way to drink it. The comparison with the regular version opened my eyes. Definitely gonna be reaching for decaf more often now.

[@tlniec]

I just did the tasting tonight - it was fun, and I was surprised at the differences I was able to pick up between the 4 processes/roasts. Looking forward to the survey!

[@Terminn]

I had a blast doing the live tasting with you all! Thank you so much James for this!!

[@cthambrecht]

Shout out to Campfire Coffee in scenic Clifton New Jersey USA. It was fun!!!

[@joshiedL]

Thanks for organising my Christmas present James and the Team! Merry Christmas from Aus 🎄

[@ellis7796]

Last year was my first time doing Hoffman's livestream coffee tasting. And now it's become something I look forward to yearly!!

[@thetauneutrino1318]

First time doing something like this and I had a really great time, thank you for taking us on this journey (and for the monumental effort behind it)!

[@thedudeabides1]

We accidentally bought a decaf coffee from one of the Italian coffee companies, and it was surprisingly good. So we have had it in stock at home more or less since :) not in the morning, but in the afternoon and for an evening coffee - it is so good

[@tangerinetangerine4400]

I'm curious about which italian brand it was.

[@thedudeabides1]

@ it is Lavazza espresso decaf

[@Shawns_snapshots]

Love everything about this, thank you James!

[@grahamodwyer4746]

Thanks for this James, I had a blast. From first slurp to last took about an hour with two clear favourites emerging at the half hour mark. It then took a further 30 minutes to separate the two leaders. Great fun.😀

[@alanturner9109]

Great to take part and a shout out to Crosby Coffee in the UK whose roast was excellent. As an aside brewing the same coffee via a single-cup filter versus a moka pot was the biggest eye opener for me. The taste experience from the moka pot being far superior. Not sure I'll ever use a filter again!

[@Wilberon_McBane]

First time Cupping, and this was a thoroughly exciting, enjoyable and engaging way of experiencing the process. To be fair my actual findings were that there wasn't a huge difference between them (but that's more on my inexperienced pallet) but my main takeaway was that I learned SO MUCH about the whole process of tasting coffee and learning to pick out the differences. Thank you again Sir, for a brilliant project to have been a part of. Oh, and Happy Christmas to everyone! 😂☕🎄

[@Natalie-hg3gh]

Your own clothes/your own skin are the actual recommended things to smell to "reset" your nose! Coffee actually does nothing in that regard but I think the way you described it is probably the most correct. It's just something completely different! Which is maybe why people have that perception that it "resets" the nose

[@Cal_TwT]

Damn Fun. From coffee apothecary, I found I enjoyed the Ethyl Acetate and Swiss water ones the best, even more than the caffeinated one, surprising for me honestly. Cant wait to order more beans from them

[@jbgator123]

This was great! Being my first coffee tasting and relatively new to specialty coffee in general, I felt somewhat validated that my observations were similar to James's observations 😅 (though I know it doesn't really matter). Shout out to New Heights coffee roasters! Looking forward to trying more of their coffees!

[@fantanaranja]

That was really fun thanks james. I have more left that I am excited to make espresso with, there may be interesting differences in brewing them that way

[@rohitdoestech]

This is my first coffee trasting ever and I enjoyed it!

[@skorm5000]

I liked the non-decaf most but all of the decaf were pleasantly surprising! I did mine blind and it was pretty easy to point out the non-decaf. All of the decaf felt a little more muted and toned down than the non-decaf but all were tasty! This gives me super high hopes for more roasters experimenting and producing more tasty decaf so I can have coffee guilt free later in the day 😅 I got my coffee from Topeca roasters, thank you Topeca for letting me take part!

[@merathi]

My first cupping, very interesting! I had a kit from the Finnish Kaffa Roastery. Was surprised the differences were quite pronounced. Natural : Pretty nice flavours but a bit bitter for my taste, might have been roasted harder than the others. CO2 : Flavours a bit muted and a lot sweeter. EA : Amped up the fruitiness and acidity. Swiss : More rounded, flavours very pronounced. I liked the EA best so I'll be checking out some more fruity coffees. Thanks a lot for organising this, it was fun and educational. I'm excited to try and do some more tastings.

[@chrisnorton2401]

Just watched and tasted. Got my tasting kit pre ground from Crosby coffee roasters here in the uk. EA was my favourite by far and very close to the caffeinated, slightly cleaner. Both fruity and acidic. The other 2 were quite muted in most aspects, carbonic quite thin but Swiss heavy. I’ll definitely be trying more decaf coffee. Until today I would always turn my nose up at it. Thanks so much for doing another tasting. I missed out on the last one.

[@dolphinsupernova]

This was super awesome and such great fun; thanks! I loved the caffeinated and the Swiss Water. I learned a bunch as well and was so surprised how the different methods affected flavour.

[@l4ndst4nder]

I think my favorite decaf was the CO2, but seemed like the coffees would change every 5 minutes! For me my main takeaway was to just trust a good roaster. If they have a specific process they prefer they will make the best coffee using it. The subtle impact of the decaf processes isn’t an excuse for a bad cup of decaf

[@plugh001]

Making espresso I found that the decaf requires a much finer grind (this seems well-known online). I hypothesize that the decaf process requires making the beans more porous, and that carries over. That said, the decafs were pleasant and it definitely seems that roasting and prep both make more difference than process or even caf/decaf.

[@brianhawthorne7603]

Definitely enjoying the taste of the thing from the place!

[@tomb2289]

So interesting and so tasty! Thanks to everyone and Square Mile for the roasts! ☕️😋

[@runningcow]

I just finished the tasting because I couldn't make it yesterday. This was so much fun! I drink decaf fairly regularly, and my general preferences lean toward bright, fruity coffees. My biggest surprise from this was how similar the different processes tasted, especially at first. I think I would have been able to pick out the regular coffee from the four if I went in blind, but none of the decafs tasted shockingly worse. My favorite was the Swiss water, which I thought was most similar to the regular coffee, but a bit muted. I got a sourness from the EA that stood out from everything else and left it at the bottom of the list. That said, my favorite decaf ever was EA process, so I have no bias against it. I'm now really curious to compare some different roasters' take on the same decaf. I wonder how hard that would be to arrange without a project like this.

[@dodaexploda]

This was indeed my first cupping. But not from lack of trying. I've talked to coffee stores, roasters, etc. I couldn't get it done. It looks like I'm going to have to organize one for me and my family.

[@csheldonhess]

James, thanks for doing this! I'd love to hear your opinion about the environmental friendliness of the different decaffeination methods and if there are any health benefits/drawbacks (suspected or measured) for any of them.

[@meredithchildress8001]

A fun project, James! You are always giving such good information about our favorite beverage, so thank you for sharing and helping us expand our knowledge of the decaf process.

[@zenadventurer69]

Coffee didn’t get here in time but I look forward to participating when it arrives. Thanks for all you do.

[@ominguti6345]

I've just received my set today and I can't wait to taste it properly (it sits in the freezer, same I always do with my "good" coffee). Am I the only one wishing these little bags were much, much, bigger? Like at least a kilo each. Tasting is nice, but i wish I colud drink one for a week, then the other and then the third. Although if they were a kilo this would've never happened on account if logistics. So I'm grateful to James for doing that, even just 50g at a time...

[@willfowles3654]

After drinking a lot of decaf this year, the easiest way to tell decaf apart from unprocessed is the chaff. It gets “dyed” during the decaf process.

[@lisatakamiya5912]

Driftaway, Thank you 🙏😊♥️ It was wonderful!:))

[@TheUncleRuckus]

I'm not even taking part in this but I still watched it. 😂

[@dtec30]

I just loved the smell of the bags when they arrived omg

[@OyvindBjorgo]

Fun fact about acidity/hydrogen ions: hydrogen has no neutrons (unless it is radioactive, in which case, DON'T). An ion also has one less electron, in hydrogen's case one less from only having one. Unless you're currently nuking your tongue with lightly radioactive elements, you're therefore enjoying the taste of protons every time you eat or drink something sour. Edit: and before anyone cares to make a comment - yeah, I know that deuterium actully has some pharmaceutical applications, and that even tritium is fairly safe to drink. I just felt the thought of nuking tongues with barely risky water to be kinda funny.

[@AtheistRising]

Huge instant unbounded love for the ethyl acetate coffee. It smelled the best, it was sweet and delicious. The co2 process was my least favourite, strange white crust, muted flavour. Swiss water was good, nice peppery flavour, but less sweet than ea.

[@ellis7796]

My fav was the CN decaf roasted by S&W Craft Roasting in Coatesville, Indiana

[@swroasting6998]

that was also my preference of the 4 as well!

[@supercharged5653]

loved it james, thank you so much!!

[@tall_jeff]

Thanks for this! I am fully convinced that roast means so much more than process now, even if I could tease out some differences, if I’m offering after dinner decaf to a party with palettes exhausted from a pleasant evening’s decadence I’ll not stress if I know I like the roaster

[@A.K.-di3mc]

I tested the kit from 19grams (Berlin) and was surprised how good all three tasted. The ethyl acetate decaf needed a coarser grind than the others and turned out very good with a pleasant sweet note. The other two were good too, I liked the CO2 a bit better than the Swiss Water. I usually drink light skandinavian roasts and don't like the typical darker roasts that are sold here in Germany, so I was really surprised how much I liked all the decaf versions in my kit. Certainly this is also due to the roaster doing a very good roasting job.

[@Fmstrat]

Please do a version of this with the "I don't like coffee" crowd. That was such a good video to watch and I, plus many other non-coffee drinkers I know, would love it.

[@SJMPhotography]

I really enjoyed this. My (highly non-expert and unscientific) takeaway was that the Ethyl Acetate was the sweetest, the Swiss Water maybe a little less sweet but more balanced, the CO2 my least favourite.

[@septemous]

Thank you all - first time - and with Square Mile & Luckie - doubled down and learned a bunch. In the end I went back to 1 of the 8 cups most often - very non-scientific, but I can say that was the best for me :)

[@csheldonhess]

I did that, too! For the Columbian coffee, by Topeca Coffee Roasters, I prefer the Swiss water decaf. I have a second kit and will rewatch to try that and see if my opinion is the same or not. :) (I could probably get my coffee-hating spouse to set me up with a blinded tasting for the second kit!)

[@GCZHardturm]

Interestingly, I found all decafs to be more interesting and more acidity-forward (exept the swiss water) as compared to the control. Thank you so much for this fun experience, James!

[@TomppaH-y3o]

Since I have never done actual cupping, I had my preferred coffee making ways to test these beans. As a pour over, I had quite similar experiences. EA was least muted and best out of decaf. Normal beans were the best. As a espresso, normal beans were very good (one of the best ever, having milk chock notes + some fruitiness). EA was pretty good (just a bit muted). Other decafes were weird and very thin. I still have one test set which I'm going to use for espresso. Next time trying to tune in more decafs for better taste.

[@Viniter]

This was super interesting, I feel like I learned a lot. I think I'm gonna do the tasting one more time but blind this time.

[@Bagubug]

Thank you for this evening!

[@vassiliosavlonitis5813]

Caf: fruity. CO2: similar but less intense flavour. EA: more acidic. SW: earthier and towards the more extracted flavour in the spectrum. My favourite was the caf and the EA. The least was the SW.

[@reggie5]

I'm now interested in blending my two favourites from today - EA and carbonic - to see what that comes out like. I'm surprised as my favourite decaf variety before now has been Swiss water based.

[@jonathanradecki1909]

Shout out to sample coffee roasters in sydney. That decaf was amazing. Definitely some stand outs and preferences. But it was a fun experience trying the different styles and noting their differences.

[@colossusX1]

Late to the party today but on my tasting (Revel Coffee - all great brews) I noticed a few differences. 1st, the CR3 process produced more larger grind particles and less uniformity in my comandante than the others. Closest to the non-decaf control for me was the EA process. CR3 process was just slightly behind EA in terms of flavor intensity and body. Interestingly, Swiss water process tasted weak in comparison to the other three.

[@cn07jsai]

Well done for everyone involved in such a monumental undertaking. The kit that Recent supplied was fantastic.

[@nathunfortytwo]

Now add caffeine back in to match the concentration of the non-decaffeinated cup. Does that make it undecaffeinated? Recaffeinated? Does it make the decaf finish disappear? Is there a flavor to caffeine, or is it the noticeable absence of the way it makes your mouth feel? A vasoconstrictive or vasodilative effect on the soft tissues of cheeks and tongue? Could you use vacuum to adjust the moisture content before roasting to make them match during roasting and thus rule out roast level?