hi I'm Craig my entire body smells of
coffee when I'm out in the Sun and this
is Mental Floss on YouTube today I'm
going to answer Bekins dwarfs big
question hey Mental Floss I have a
strange question how do they make decaf
coffee when the caffeine is in the bean
that's not a strange question what's a
strange question is why would anyone
drink decaf how do I'll answer your
question
I want to begin by telling you about a
2006 study done at the University of
Florida researchers tested 10 16-ounce
decaf coffees from 9 coffee shops they
found that nine of the ten cups
contained between eight point six
milligrams and thirteen point nine
milligrams of caffeine and zero
milligrams of purpose so that aside this
is still much less than a regular 8
ounce cup of coffee which has about 85
milligrams of caffeine
the only cup that didn't contain any
caffeine was instant decaf Folgers
coffee crystals why am I telling you
this
well I thought you should know that
decaf coffee isn't always perfectly
decaffeinated if you're trying to go
caffeine free be aware of what you're
drinking plus it allows me to tell you
without shocking you that the
decaffeination process doesn't remove
100% of caffeine from coffee beans
usually 94 to 98 percent is removed see
you're not shocked now because I told
you that thing so let's back up to
before those decaf coffees were lying to
unsuspecting consumers when they were
just little caffeinated beans before
coffee beans are ripe and are roasted
they are green it's these green coffee
beans that are used in the
decaffeination process before any other
step the beans are usually soaked in
water or steamed because it makes it
easier for caffeine to be extracted and
the ideal temperature for decaffeination
is 160 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit or
blah-dee-blah Celsius I mean I'm not
Canadian I don't know there are a few
different methods for decaffeinated
coffee beans one of these is called
supercritical carbon dioxide
decaffeination just felt like it needed
to be said like that green coffee beans
are put in a pressure vessel with air
pressure at around 250 times what we're
used to carbon dioxide in the vessel is
used as a solvent to remove the caffeine
a few hours later the carbon dioxide now
containing the caffeine is removed from
the vessel another way to decaffeinated
coffee beans is the direct solvent
method instead of using carbon dioxide
to remove caffeine a different solvent
is used like dichloromethane or ethyl
acetate basically Bekins dwarf the
caffeine is in the bean but we can use
different solvents to remove the
majority of that caffeine and here's a
little historical background so you can
impress your friends decaf coffee was
invented by a German man named Ludwig
Rose Elias in the early 1900's he used a
chemical compound benzene not to be
confused with my last name on green
coffee beans in those days benzene was
also used in aftershave and paint it
turns out benzene is not good for you if
you have a big question of your own that
you'd like answered leave
below in the comments thanks for
watching Mental Floss on YouTube see you
next week come on by to see what's
brewing it probably won't have anything
to a coffee
you