Three Techniques for Better Decaf Espresso

[@LoganScottY]

I bought an espresso machine to exclusively drink decaf coffee with. This video was very reassuring lol I thought my machine was faulty with how difficult it can be to extract decaf

[@psysoul]

Thanks for sharing. If you have a way to change the pressure profile try different ones. I just managed to die of one of these decaf was Peru coffee and it was really difficult for me to dial this one in but now with the 30 sec pre-fusion on three bars then going up to nine bars and then smoothening it down back to six or seven. It’s a perfect taste. Also generally I like to use just 13 seconds of pre-infusion and then going up to nine bar and then going back down smoothly to six bars. This works great for most decaf and most caffeinated. I dial in grind size and heat level, grams in and out first on my flair 58+ then comes the profiling

[@vasilygushcha4942]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Looking forward to try decaf espresso.

[@lebeljones]

Super useful vid.

[@sophiabibb3194]

What an amazing video! Your quality is awesome and you clearly know a lot about coffee theory. I’m a babyrista and everyone is always saying that decaf tastes bad, though in all my research I’ve seen no empirical evidence to suggest that this is due to anything except user error 🧐 Thanks for this tutorial. I’d love a review on decaf coffees you recommend!

[@DavidLikesCoffee]

EA decafs from Huila, Colombia have been consistently very good. Feel like it's hard to go wrong with decafs from that region.

[@davidmanning3403]

David, this is incredibly helpful. I drink a lot of decaf, so this helps a lot. I grabbed a puck screen which also helped.

[@TravisBourgeois]

Which decaf do you recommend because all decaf taste almost weak and weird after taste

[@roanvanderkallen]

Although decaf is not really my thing, great and interesting video! Learned a lot and your camera angles and overall look and feel is improving big time. Keep up the good work sir. Kind regards, Roan

[@DavidLikesCoffee]

Appreciate that! Been putting a lot of time and practice into the way I present, glad it’s coming through 😊

[@PolicarpioNicole]

i've been pulling decaf almost exclusively with my flair58 for almost one year. It has its quirks but it can be as delicious as normal coffee if pulled well. I use gentle pre infusion, a bit coarser grinds, pressure profiling and cruise around 6 bars, and go as far as a 1:3 ratio to pull more out of it. Served to normal coffee drinkers they usually can't tell the difference - provided im using specialty single origin decafs. And goes without saying stay away from the MC processed ones. Those typically don't really come out great. I prefer the Co2, EA, SWP and MWP processes.

[@DavidLikesCoffee]

That’s awesome. I’d love to try this with better flow control. Looking at cafe imports large list of offerings vs roasters relatively smaller menus it feels like there are going to be many more quality decaf offerings out there very soon.

[@PolicarpioNicole]

​@@DavidLikesCoffee even in our country, there's only a handful of great options. I had to import them from other countries. I guess specialty decaf still hasn't found its footing in the industry.

[@mvonwalter6927]

Been using decaf and the Flair Signature for a year. Since the Signature has a tall/narrow brew basket courser grind is necessary. But even then I noticed a smoother shot when I brought pressures down to 6 bar. Now I am pulling them with a traditional 58mm group I am in bitter shot land and am going to start incorporating what I learned from the manual process.

[@QuickQuips]

Thanks for this. I have a flair myself and wondered what to change.

[@arpurba_]

Great tips. I tried them and can see improvements in my decaf. I also have beans from Huila. Can you tell about the influence of the brew temperature? At which temperature did/do you brew your (Huila) decaf?

[@thebusinesspsychologist]

Great video David. I’ve just starting using a bianca v3 and need to get my decaf on point (for my wife). Really helpful video. Thanks 🙏

[@XxFe1aRxX]

Neat Visual stuff even before the helpful knowledge in this video, you have easy smooth acceptance vibes on top of all that. Keep it up

[@Makebelieve123]

Brilliant ! Thank you :)

[@TheMartinChnnl]

Very good video!!

[@TheMartinChnnl]

BTW, what do you think of 0.2 mm thin puck screens?

[@TheMartinChnnl]

I don't understand something: you say that if you overdose the puck, you might get under extraction and that might cause sourness. But in another video where you talked about ristretto you said that lower yield ratios produce more sweetness... so, which one is it?

[@DavidLikesCoffee]

It depends on the situation. Low yield/high dose will give you more sweetness and body, high yield/low dose will give you more clarity and acidity. Coffees will respond differently to each style of extraction depending on roast, processing, etc.

[@jakobw135]

I find that the SURFACE TENSION on the decaf is not enough to hold the STEAMED CREAMER - so it ends up falling right through and not producing the desired pattern on top. What can you do to change that?

[@ShrednESP]

Just found your video as my wife is a decaf drinker. Thanks for the tip. Would you skip a re infusion for decaf?

[@DavidLikesCoffee]

Usually the longer you preinfuse the finer you need to grind, at most I would do 2-3 seconds preinfusion

[@PeterAusEbersbach]

What Temperature?

[@kristinvh80dis]

Any suggestions if my machine’s lowest setting is 8 bar (Profitec Go)?

[@joanmorris3057]

What do you mean by dosing higher?

[@andreas3120]

I currently try to dial in a decaf as V60 pour over. Anything that translates from espresso? It is very sour.

[@DavidLikesCoffee]

Taking a break from caffeine this week and working on a pour over recipe, but so far a higher dose and finer grind size seem to help, especially for smaller batches. Also, less agitation so the draw down doesn't stall too much. Hoping to get a video put together in the next couple of days

[@XxFe1aRxX]

Neat Visual stuff even before the helpful knowledge in this video, you have easy smooth acceptance vibes on top of all that. Keep it up