For the love of decaffeination. Decaf coffee continues to rise in popularity, with one in every five coffee drinkers globally now enjoying their coffee without the caffeine kick. This trend shows no signs of stopping and we’ve found ourselves roasting more and more decaf each calendar year, both for our webshop customers and the wholesale branch of our business. The ultimate placebo effect, we are always pleasantly surprised when our decaf offering comes out on top on a cupping table.
With the rise in demand for decaf, we’re also seeing vast improvements in both the quality and traceability of decaf coffees. We source our decaf from La Plata in Huila, Colombia, where the decaffeination process takes place within the country leading to more traceable conditions, as well as a shorter geographical journey from farm to cup. This year, Climpsons Head of Production Simon took a trip to La Plata to build on our traceable relationship and see behind the scenes at the decaffeination plant in Manizales.
This year, we’ve also seen an industry first with a decaffeinated coffee winning the 2024 US Brewers Cup. Weihong Zhang, owner of BlendIn Coffee Club in Houston, Texas entered the competition with BlendIn’s house decaf, competing against the expected ultra-specialty coffees we typically see on the competition stage and going on to win.
“I discovered this coffee last September during a sourcing trip in Colombia. I met Francesco Sanapo, a multiple-time Italian barista champion, and we brewed a mysterious sample. I initially thought it was a Gesha or Sidra, but it turned out to be a decaf Typica. I chose this coffee for the competition because it’s an amazing coffee that opened my eyes to the world of decaf. I wanted to share this experience on the competition stage. The decaf concept resonated with many of my coffee friends and customers, and I realised there’s a significant group of people who can’t consume caffeine but still deserve to enjoy complex flavours from specialty coffee.” Weihong Zhang on Sprudge.
It’s fair to say, specialty coffee is buzzing for decaf right now.
So how did we get here? And what can we expect for the future of decaf? Here’s the short, and a little strange, history of the discovery of decaffeination and our expert predictions for the years to come. In just three words - watch this space.
A brief history of decaffeination …
This accidental revolution was started back in 1903 when a cargo ship carrying coffee had an unexpected soaking of seawater en-route. Surprisingly, the submerging of this load of coffee had the effect of filtering out the caffeine content, whilst seeming to retain the flavour. Magic. Ludwig Roselius, founder of Coffee HAG, experimented to repeat this discovery in an industrial setting and the first decaffeination process was born. This process has, of course, evolved with time with continued innovations*.
What’s with the current decaf trend?
Specialty coffee is moving from niche to normal, with premium quality specialty coffee shops now becoming a regular fixture on our local high streets across the country. We’ve seen many people’s coffee drinking habits change from the commodity grade coffee found in commercial high street chains to the finer and more refined flavours found in specialty coffee. This shift is not just about the caffeine, it’s about quality and this is reflected in the greater attention we’re paying to decaf and the way it’s sourced, roasted and prepared for the customer.
(You can find out more about what else is trending in specialty coffee in our previous journal article ‘What’s driving millennial coffee culture? And what can we expect from Gen Z’)
We all know the benefits of getting a good night's sleep - restoring our immune system, improving cardiac health and enjoying a gentler temperament as we go out to meet the world after a solid eight hours kip. Caffeine is a stimulant, boosting our energy and alertness, and while this can be incredibly beneficial during the waking day, it can also interfere with a regular sleep pattern by messing with those all important circadian rhythms. For those of us that feel an acute sensitivity to caffeine, a cup of coffee can have an effect on the body for the hours that follow.
With specialty coffee hitting the mainstream, you will inevitably be invited to a ‘coffee-meet’ after lunchtime. You want the coffee, but you want the undisturbed nights sleep even more. This is where decaf steps in.
In the past decaf has often been an afterthought in coffee, considered the soft option when you could just have a hard cup of caffeine to power through the day. This led to decaf not being given the same love and attention to other coffees, and many shops not offering a decaf option at all. A decaf coffee would often be pre-ground, sometimes weeks previously, and therefore lack the freshness and vibrancy that it deserves. When it comes to decaf, just like any coffee, freshly ground really is best. You can check out our previous blog all about the challenges of working with pre-ground decaf coffee and our experience based solutions.
What’s changed for us at Climpsons?
Keeping ahead of the trend, we’ve always taken pride in the way we roast and brew our signature decaf coffee from La Plata in Colombia. It’s this care and attention to detail that we’ve always placed on our non-caffeinated offering that has seen the amount of decaf we’ve roasted and sold increase year on year. We’re proud to be roasting far more decaf than ever before for you lot.
To put this change into perspective, the volume of decaf coffee we have roasted year on year at our roastery has increased annually. While naturally an amount of this volume can be attributed to our overall business growth, it’s fair to say that the dial is swinging in the favour of decaf with a significant increase seen particularly in the last four years.
This graph shows the annual increase in volume of decaf roasted, seeing this value tripling since 2015. From 2022 to 2023 we’ve seen a 32% increase.
We’ve also spotted a notable increase in the number of our Broadway Market cafe customers who are opting for decaf. In 2022 we saw 4.8% of people choosing to drink decaf, in 2023 this increased to 6.1%. In line with this, we recently removed the additional 30p charge for decaf at our locations, making decaf the same price as all our other delicious espresso offerings.
We’ve also made changes in the way we serve our decaf offering. In our cafe we would previously pre-grind coffee throughout the day on our Mahlkonig EK43. Grinding around 200g of coffee at a time meant we were unable to make small adjustments to our grind size throughout service. It also meant coffee could be sitting pre-ground (admittedly, in an airtight and sealed container) for upwards of an hour, this delay meaning our decaf was not quite as fresh as our caffeinated offerings.
To improve the consistency of our decaf, we invested in a new Mahlkonig E65 just for decaf. This allows us to amend and adjust our grind size throughout service, ensuring our decaffeinated coffee is pouring exactly to recipe and tasting on point. Where possible we recommend this same option to our other wholesale accounts that want to make their decaf offering shine.
Our predictions for the future of decaf
What can we expect in the future of decaf? With decaf firmly here to stay, we can look towards even more tastiness in our decaf coffees. Alongside improved traceability, we will start to see more premium decaf options for the specialist brewers amongst you. We can also expect the emergence of more farm specific micro-lots, rather than the more generic regionals we have seen up until this point. Decaf drinkers can look forward to more choice, as we at Climpson's look towards adding a second decaf option to our range (I know, I know!) as well as the possibility of enjoying one of your favourite coffees two ways - in a caffeinated version for the morning, and a decaffeinated version for the afternoon. To repeat the words we started this article with - watch, this, space.
In the same way that lower alcohol beers and wines are gaining popularity, we’ve also seen the emergence of lower caffeine varieties of coffee, although this still remains pretty niche due to more challenging growing conditions associated with these crops (caffeine acts as a natural repellent to cherry munching insects). Our latest Showstopper coffee is a prime example of this. La Esperanza from Cafe Granja La Esperanza in Colombia is a Laurina varietal - born of a genetic mutation during coffee cultivation on La Reunion island in the 1800s that resulted in a unique crop. Sophisticated and clean in flavour with around half the caffeine content. All the fun, half the caffeine.
Alongside the trend for decaf, we see a trend for increased convenience in our lives. Our Midnight Oil Coffee Concentrate provides specialty coffee, in an instant. We’ve just launched a decaf version of our Midnight Oil Coffee Concentrate for incredibly easy iced lattes at home. In our Midnight Oil range we have long championed the Decaf Espresso Martini for all the joy of the party, without the sleepless night.
Chances are, your cup of decaf is now tastier than ever before and we’ll only see this improving in the years to come. Welcome to your decaf era.
