Any Decaf Coffee Worth a Damn in Terms of Taste, Mouth-Feel, That Sorta Thing?

[jclay]

Clear enough question?

I am back to giving myself one, full-caf espresso/day but I'd sure like to have another during the day that has everything but the caffeine and, with luck, the residual solvents used to remove it.

Does such an animal exist?

I'm not a coffee lifestyle snob; I won't roast my own; grinding my own would be a very heavy lift and proof, like on stone tablets, would be required before embarking on that journey; I'm quite happy with Cafe Bustelo and other plain vanilla, full-caf espresso products in my mocha pot. But the de-caf stuff.....it's warm, wet, brown but it just doesn't have the mouth-feel, or something, of the real stuff. Maybe the "or something" answer is simply (in a conspiratorial, sotto voice) "it's the caffeine, John; it's the caffeine"; "and your outta luck".

Are there any personal sins that don't have some sorta negative side effects? Good de-caf; that's all I want.

My parents drank Sanka; time, place I guess. What a horrible liquid.

[SlowPokePete]

Tierra Farms near me has a decent decaf...and they ship.

Reasonable prices, too.

https://www.tierrafarm.com

SPP

[echappist]

Clear enough question?

I am back to giving myself one, full-caf espresso/day but I'd sure like to have another during the day that has everything but the caffeine and, with luck, the residual solvents used to remove it.

Does such an animal exist?

I'm not a coffee lifestyle snob; I won't roast my own; grinding my own would be a very heavy lift and proof, like on stone tablets, would be required before embarking on that journey; I'm quite happy with Cafe Bustelo and other plain vanilla, full-caf espresso products in my mocha pot. But the de-caf stuff.....it's warm, wet, brown but it just doesn't have the mouth-feel, or something, of the real stuff. Maybe the "or something" answer is simply (in a conspiratorial, sotto voice) "it's the caffeine, John; it's the caffeine"; "and your outta luck".

Are there any personal sins that don't have some sorta negative side effects? Good de-caf; that's all I want.

My parents drank Sanka; time, place I guess. What a horrible liquid.

Good caffeinated stuff is relatively easyto find and relatively cheap (e.g. $8-10/lb at Trader Joe’s).

Good decaf is harder to find. For one, almost all of the decaf whole bean coffee i got from TJ smelled stale when i opened the can. This just wasnt an issue with TJ’s regular beans.

As you live in a college town, i bet there’s a local roaster who could probably do it. The trick is finding one that allows you to buy by the half pound (though quarter pound would be even more preferable). Won’t be cheap though (at least $12/lb).

Your local Whole Foods may have a roaster on site. In which case, you can buy however much you want, and the price is ~$12/lb. WF also has prepackaged beans for $16/lb (sold in 12-oz packages, under the label Allegro), and those are actually fresh, unlike the ones from TJ.

None of these uses halogenated solvents to extract the caffeine. The higher end stuff has used super critical CO2 or a water process for quite a while now.

[jclay]

You're right. A local roaster, Lucky Goat, has a roasting facility on our side of town but it just never occurred to me to drop in and inquire. I'll remedy that shortly.

Funny, habit generated myopia I guess. LG has been squarely in my face, line-of-sight-literally, at the tee-intersection of Easterwood Drive and Capital Circle NE every time I use that route.

Thanks for giving me a nudge.