Decaffeination

Decaffeination is the process of removing caffeine, which is a stimulant drug from coffee beans. The term was coined by a German, Friedrich Runge, and is used by plants to kill insects who feed upon them. Most notably the tea leaf plant and the coffee plant.

Caffeine is classified as psychoactive and stimulant's the human central nervous system. The key benefit of caffeine is to ward off drowsiness, with the effects capable of lasting four hours. Heavy users can become tolerant to caffeine, and if they suddenly stop the intake of caffeine it can have unpleasant withdraw symptoms.

Such symptoms may include an increase in anxiety and a low level of depression. Some people with anxiety problems also report that any intake of caffeine can increase their level of anxiety. Long time heavy use of caffeine has been observed to increase irritability, anxiety and nervousness in people with no previous problems.

Therefore there is an obvious advantage to drinking decaffeinated coffee, or 'decaf' for short. The process of decaffeination should remove between ninety seven and ninety nine percent of caffeine from the coffee bean. As of yet, no regulatory body promises one hundred percent removal of caffeine, but, there are a few products out there with zero percent caffeine.

There is not one single process of decaffeination. But, there is a number of popular techniques, which includes the Swiss Water Process, the Roselius process, the CO2 process and finally the Triglyceride process. It is estimated that on average, it would take in the region of ten to twelve cups of decaffeinated coffee to equal one cup of normal coffee.