Decaf: Just say no
Does anyone not sell decaf espresso? How about no decaf at all?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on
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i used to be anti-freezing and then i read scott rao's book. his theory about freezing seemed reasonable enough, so i tried it, and voila! fresher decaf.
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Permalink Reply by Shadow on
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Thanks to all for the positive info on freezing. Not a problem for us with any "leaded" beans, but I have thought about freezing decaf in 1 lb. increments for some time now. Will let it rest a few days out from roast, then vacuum pack about 95% of the air out using a FoodSaver device. This method has worked very well the few times I've tried it previously with caffeineated beans.
We gladly sell decaf. Don't always brew batches because I throw out more than I serve, so I offer decaf Americanos most of the time.
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Permalink Reply by Dennis McQuoid on
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Thanks all for your input. I've got some experimenting to do with freezing and trying some available decaf coffees. I appreciate your help.
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Permalink Reply by Chris on
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Decaf is what you drink when you've hit your personal caffeine limit, but still want espresso. If you're only in it for the buzz, take the pills.
And I'll double what Jay says about freezing. I simply fill a jam jar with beans and freeze them four ounces at at a time to keep them fresh. I go through about a pound a week at home, and I had three roasters send me a couple few pounds each one week, and had two folk gift me coffee as well. I have them trained, it was all whole bean, all roasted within days (one form Victrola, and another form Savaya, a great roasters here in Tucson) and without roasting, I would have lost or trashed at least five pounds. Freezing it allowed some of the local roasters to wonder if I was alright... ; >
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Permalink Reply by Hannah Marie Smela on
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I think decaf is something we couldnt go without where I work. SO many people either dont want to be caffeinated but want the coffee taste. Or they just simply cannot drink it because it will make them sick. As for espresso, the decaf can taste just as good as regular depending on the grind and how well the shots are pulled. In my personal experience, its taken longer to get pulling decaf shots down.
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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on
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Add another couple decades freezing coffee experience, both roasted and greens. Few years ago to illustrate took a video of quite tasty over 90% crema pull (in crystal demi to see the Guinnes effect) of coffee 7 days rested then ONE FULL YEAR vac sealed and frozen.
Jay Caragay said:I am decidedly in the FREEZE? YES! camp.
After many years of testing and field use of freezing coffees between myself and some other coffee professionals I know, I have found very little degradation of frozen coffees in their roasted whole bean form. Collectively between us, I think we have a total of 15 years freezing experience.
It's very easy to think that freezing water in the bean will crystalize to the point in will damage the structure. We have not found this to be true because roasted coffee simply does not have enough water content (2-3%) to damage the bean. Compare this to freezing string beans or a tomato and you'll easily see what freezing damage will do to a product.
What freezing accomplishes for the operator is a suspension of aging. If you freeze your coffee on Day 4 out of the roaster, you start from Day 4 when you thaw the coffee. This means you can store roasted coffee almost indefinitely at nearly any point of its aging cycle, hold it and then serve from that moment forward.
Some people have stated that the thawing of the coffee "speeds up" the aging process. However, I have not found that to be true - partly because our coffees don't last more than a few days and for us to see any truly notable change would require holding the coffee longer than our production needs demand.
The problem with decaf is the extreme damage the process does to the structure of the bean that increases its rate of staling, combined with the relatively low demand means that you'll invariably find yourself with stale decaf while still having a stock of it on hand. Freezing allows you to manage and maximize your product without sacrificing the quality of the coffee.
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Permalink Reply by Southeast Grind on
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We don't brew decaf but do offer decaf americanos. We often get request for decaf drip but just not enough to make it worthwhile brewing a cup. For a short time we were offering a single french press for decaf, but had to charge more to balance the cost and that put some customers off.
At Coffee Fest Seattle there is a workshop about making decaf a profit center. I'll be very interested to hear their approach.
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Permalink Reply by Marmeláda on
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As for us, we don't offer decaf :) We better focus on our core competency—serving various fresh and amazing Single Origin coffees as double ristretto—and not stretching ourselves thin with adding so-so decaf.
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Permalink Reply by olivier dutil on
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well our decaf is better then most normal espresso offer around us . so work on you decaf
Marmeláda said:As for us, we don't offer decaf :) We better focus on our core competency—serving various fresh and amazing Single Origin coffees as double ristretto—and not stretching ourselves thin with adding so-so decaf.
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olivier dutil: We'd rather not deal with decaf at all. As was said before—great (regular) coffee is our priority. This is our planned and carefully thought-over business decision.
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Permalink Reply by Kim Sammons on
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I think for me, if i had the choice i wouldnt bother with decaf, its just something more to maintain,stock, etc. But my clients like it, they buy it - because they want it, which means i should do serve it. At the end of the day thats why we're here - to give your customer what he or she likes and wants right? Other wise we'd all stay at home and make our perfect drinks all day long just for us.... hehe (mocha btw yum!)
Kim xx
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Well i just look in our pos and in the last 3 month we sold 856 Doubleshot of decaf at around 3.25 ea with is 2782$ and those customer would get anything if it wasnt for the decaf! our decaf grinder (mazzer mini) cost us 750$ and if you said that it cost a max of 600$ un supplie to make those drink well that juste make a extra 1432$ that you just say no to that extra cash.
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