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As most flavour components develop during roasting, coffee is almost always decaffeinated in the green bean form, before roasting. Decaffeinated beans, roast and ground and instant coffees are now widely available. The first successful extraction of caffeine from coffee beans was achieved by a German chemist, Runge, in 1820. His friend, the poet Goethe, had suggested that Runge analyse the constituents of coffee to discover the cause of his insomnia - and the history of decaffeinated coffee began. The real breakthrough, however, didn't come until the turn of the century when Ludwig Roselius, a German coffee importer, turned a batch of ruined coffee beans over to researchers. They decided to pre-treat the coffee beans with steam before bringing them into contact with a caffeine-removing solvent. Steaming swells the beans, increasing their surface area and making the caffeine easier to remove. The discovery made it possible to produce decaffeinated coffee on a commercial scale for the first time. He founded Kaffee Hag in Bremen in 1906 with his brand Sanka. Pre-treatment with steam is still the first stage of many modern decaffeination processes, but significant changes have taken place in the technology and in the solvents used. Defacceination processes basically involve treating the green coffee beans with a solvent, then removing the caffeine-laden solvent from the beans. The three main methods of decaffeination in commercial use today are: a) chemical solvents b) supercritical gases or c) water and caffeine-free extracts. After the decaffeination process, processing companies no longer throw the caffeine away; they sell it to pharmecutical companies who use it in a number of different products. Chemical solvent decaffeination: Firstly, the green beans are treated with steam, under pressure. This treatment swells the beans, increasing their surface area and making the caffeine easier to remove. The next stage is extraction of the caffeine by a solvent, again under pressure, at a temperature close to the boiling point of the solvent. Ideally, the solvent should remove caffeine selectively, without affecting the coffee in any other way. After decaffeination, only minute traces of the solvent are left in the coffee. Nevertheless, the chemical used must be sage, so that these traces do not affect the health of anyone drinking decaffeinated coffee. The safety of solvents used in decaffeination is tested in animal and human studies and reviewed by government scientific authorities. Solvents in current use which pass these stringent criteria includ methylene chloride (dichloromethane) and ethyl acetate. The caffeine which is removed from the solvent by distillation has many commercial applications, for example in pharmaceuticals and as a flavouring agent. Traces of solvent still adhering to the beans are forced out by further steaming and the coffee is then dried. Decaffeination by supercritical gas: At temperatures above their 'critical point' under pressure, gases behave rather like liquids and can be used as s olvents. Supercritical carbon dioxide is used as a selective solvent for caffeine. It is applied to previously steamed green coffee at temperatures of about 70 degrees C and at high pressure. The caffeine is separated from the gas by rinsing or by absorption and the gas recirculated. In this method the wax layer of the coffee bean is retained and nothing but the caffeine is removed. Methods using water and caffeine-free extracts: Various processes have been devised in which caffeine is removed, not from the bean, but from an extract of water-soluble substances produced by steeping the coffee in hot water. If the caffeine is removed by a solvent, this is known as an 'indirect solvent' method; otherwise, the caffeine may be separated from the extract by absorption onto the substance such as activated carbon (charcoal). The caffeine-free extract is then used to decaffeinate the green coffee, as caffeine passes readily from the beans into the extract. However, these methods also result in the loss of some other water-soluble components of coffee such as carbohydrates and chlorogenic acids. In the 'Swiss water process', the green beans are immersed in water and the resulting extract passed over activated carbon to remove the caffeine, as above. The caffeine-free mixture is then added to the partially dried coffee beans before they are fully dried and roasted. Regulations concerning decaffeinated coffee: EC regulations state that the caffeine content of decaffeinated coffee should not exceed 0.1% in the case of green beans or 0.3% in the case of coffee extracts (instant coffee) - dry matter basis. All decaffeination methods in use today remove at least 97% of the caffeine naturally present in the coffee bean. A cup of decaffeinated coffee contains about 1-5 mg of caffeine - depending on the strength of the brew. In Italy, around 1600, priests asked Pope Clement VIII to forbid the favourite drink of the Ottoman Empire considering it part of the Infidel threat. On taking one sip, the pope found the drink delicious an d baptised it - making it an acceptable Christian beverage. In 1674 The Women's Petition Against Coffee was set up in London. Women complained that men were never to be found at home during times of domestic crises, since they were always enjoying themselves in the coffee houses. They circulated a petition protesting "the grand inconveniences accruing to their sex from the excessive use of the drying and enfeebling liquor". A year later, King Charles II tries to supress the coffee houses because they were regarded as hotbeds of revolution but his proclamation is revoked after a huge public outcry and the ban lasts just 11 days. Some of the coffee houses in London became very well known with different groups of workers and soon became the kingpins around which the capital's social, political and commercial life revolved. Jonathan's Coffee House in Change Alley was where stockbrokers usually met - it eventually became the London Stock Exchange. Likewise, ship owners and marine insurance brokers visited Edward L loyd's Coffee House in Lombard Street - it too moved on and up in the world and became the centre of world insurance and the headquarters of Lloyds of London. Johann Sebastian Bach composed his "Kafee-Kantate" or Coffee Cantata in 1732. Partly an ode to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women from drinking coffee (it was thought to make them sterile), the cantata includes the aria "Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have coffee..." Prussia's Frederick The Great attempted to block imports of green coffee in 1775 as Prussia's wealth is drained. He condemned the increase in coffee consumption as "disgusting" and urged his subjects to drink beer instead. He employed coffee smellers, who stalked the streets sniffing for the outlawed aroma of home roasting. Public outcry changes his mind. Coffee fever spread throughout Europe in the 18th Century and the French had introduced coffee into the New World by 1715. Coffee co nsumption in Britain began to decline as import duties for coffee increased. The British East India Company concentrated on importing tea as the market began to grow. In Europe, however, people were gradually inventing new and improved ways of making coffee and, in 1822, a Frenchman Louis Bernard Rabaut invented a machine which forced the hot water through the coffee grounds using steam instead of merely letting it drip through. The first espresso machine had been born. Coffee is believed to have arrived in North America in 1607 when Captain John Smith helped to found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. By 1668 coffee had replaced beer as New York City's favourite breakfast drink with coffeehouses in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and elsewhere. Most of these coffeehouses were more like pubs and taverns than the genuine coffeehouses of Europe. They served not only coffee but also chocolate, ales, beers and wines. They also rented rooms to sailors and travellers. One famous coffeehouse in New Engla nd was the Green Dragon in Boston. At first it was popular with British officers but in later years it came to be the gathering place of John Adams, Paul Revere and other revolutionaries plotting against England. Tea remained the favourite beverage in America until 1773 when the people of Boston revolted against the excessively high tax King George had placed on tea. They raided English merchant ships which were in the harbour and threw their cargoes of tea into the sea. The event became known as the "Boston Tea Party", and afterwards the people of Boston and America changed from drinking tea to coffee which was seen as a patriotic duty. It was the Dutch, however, who, with a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, became the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially in 1690. They founded the East India coffee trade by taking the coffee tree to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and their East Indian colony, Java, and as a result, Amsterdam became a trading centre for coffee. Coffee was becoming a precious product fit for Royal gifts and, in 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam sent a young coffee tree to King Louis XIV of France as a present.
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