In recent years, the Ethyl Acetate, or 'Sugar Process' decaffeination method, has become the method of choice for most coffee roasters throughout the specialty industry. The Ethyl Acetate (EA) decaffeination process has gained popularity in part because it often takes place in the country of origin of the coffee, namely Colombia, reducing the distance a fresh harvest needs to travel and thereby reducing cost. EA processing is also prized for its ability to maintain a high level of the original character of a coffee, which can often be lost as a result of any decaffeination process. However, many consumers are left to wonder: what is ethyl acetate?
Ethyl acetate is technically an ester, which is a naturally occurring chemical compound, responsible for a number of the pleasant smells we experience from certain fruits, such as bananas. However, the creation of this ester can also be prompted, for example, as a byproduct of fermenting sugarcane (this is also the provenance of the more marketing-friendly term ‘Sugar Process Decaf’). As yeast consumes the sucrose in sugarcane during fermentation, it produces ethanol and carbon dioxide, as well as small amounts of organic acids such as acetic acid. The resulting acids can react with the alcohols produced to form esters, such as Ethyl Acetate (ethanol + acetic acid). Caffeine, as it turns out, is one of a number of compounds that is soluble in ethyl acetate. The trade off of most decaffeination methods, however, is that the solvent being used can also be an effective solvent of some rewardable flavor compounds in coffee.
[@portabletext/react] Unknown block type "imageType", specify a component for it in the `components.types` prop
The general process of EA decaffeination begins by steaming the green coffee to expand the cell structure of the coffee seed to prepare it for the extraction of caffeine. The prepared green coffee is then steeped in a solution of water and ethyl acetate, which dissolves the caffeine and allows caffeine molecules to diffuse out of the beans into the surrounding solution. After multiple rounds of steeping in fresh solution, the caffeine content is effectively removed, and the beans can then be steamed again to remove any remaining solution before being dried to their original moisture content. While no decaffeination method is perfect, we find the EA method does an admirable job of maintaining origin character, while offering an experience for decaf drinkers that doesn’t compromise on quality or complexity flavor.
