Description

The difficulty of decaffeination is that many of the flavour compounds that give coffee its excellent taste are, like caffeine, water-soluble. Thus, any decaffeination method needs to effectively single out and remove the caffeine molecule while preserving as many of the flavor compounds as possible.

This eco-friendly process is a natural and chemical-free method of pulling the caffeine from the beans without the worry of harsh chemical residue.

The Mountain Water decaffeination process was developed by Descamex in Veracruz, Mexico. They harness the pure, clean waters of mountain glaciers to gently extract caffeine while still preserving the individual flavours and aromas of the coffee beans. Unlike solvent-based methods, the Mountain Water Method is no doubt a cleaner and greener way to drink decaf!

The Mountain Water Decaffeination Process

• The Process begins with green coffee beans being loaded into a reception tank. This takes about two hours, and they typically process a hefty batch of around 5,000 kg of coffee.
• Then the beans are prepared through a soaking phase where they absorb water and soften for about an hour. 
• Next comes the Caffeine Extraction. After the soaking, the beans are placed in a chamber where they’re exposed to a caffeine-free water solution that’s actually saturated with the coffee’s solid flavours. This first batch of beans are then discarded. This process only needs to happen once because the mixture produced by soaking those beans, called green coffee extract (GCE), can be maintained and reused to decaffeinate many batches of green beans and by reusing the caffeine-free water for subsequent batches, it reduces waste and makes for a really sustainable choice.
  Using flow, pressure, temperature, and vacuum, the caffeine gets extracted while the coffee goodness stays put.
• Once the beans are as caffeine-free as possible (usually 99.9%), they sent through cylindrical and vertical dryers, where hot air helps to remove any excess moisture.
• Finally the beans are polished to remove any dust particles that may have accumulated and ensure they’re readied for the final packaging.

What is the difference between a Swiss Water Process Decaf and Mountain Water Decaf? Outside of location, not much, as they both use the same water processing but Swiss Water Process perhaps maintains a bit more acidity to their coffees when compared to the Mountain Water Process.