Coffee decaffeination process: the history

From its earliest history, there were health concerns regarding coffee and its effects. Decaffeinated coffee was first developed commercially in Europe 1900.

Decaffeination with chemical solvents such as methylenchloride or acetyl acetate was first successfully applied by Roselius in ’Kaffee HAG’. Dr. Ludwig Roselius’ original process for decaffeinating coffee was patented in Germany in 1905.

Before the First World War Roselius extended his business to the United States and built a coffee extraction plant at New Brunswick, New Jersey.

In USA the patent issued to Meyer, Roselius and Wimmer in 1908. The process as described in a 1908 patent consists of first, moisturizing green coffee to at least 20% to facilitated transport of caffeine through the cell wall and then contacting the moistened beans with solvents.

Until the 1980s, synthetic organic solvents commonly were used in the United States to extract the caffeine. 

The so called ‘water decaffeination’ process was developed as an alternative by General Foods around 1941 and was patented in 1943.

In the early 1980s, coffee was implicated as a possible cause of birth defects, benign breast lumps, pancreatic cancer and heart disease. Sales of decaffeinated coffee rose dramatically.

Until the mid-90s, decaffeinated coffee was considered to be flavorless, bitter and a poor substitute for regular coffee. As the process of decaffeination has improved, so has its market share with nearly 30 percent of the specialty and gourmet coffees being decaffeinated.
Coffee decaffeination process: the history