Swiss Water Process (water decaffeination)

Also Swiss Water, water process decaf, green coffee extract process

The Swiss Water Process is a solvent-free decaffeination method operated at a single Canadian plant (and licensed elsewhere) in which caffeine is pulled from green beans by diffusion into a water extract already saturated with coffee solids, and then removed from that extract by carbon filtration. It is certified organic-compatible and widely used by specialty roasters. Peer-reviewed sources describe it as time-consuming and prone to some flavour degradation compared with newer methods. The company's own process page could not be fetched (rate-limited), so process numbers come from trade description.

Fermentation
not applicable
Drying
not published
Water use
High
Origins listing it
0

Step by step

Compare every method
  1. 01Soak green beans in hot water saturated with coffee solubles except caffeine (green coffee extract)
  2. 02Caffeine diffuses out of the beans into the extract while other solubles stay in equilibrium
  3. 03Pass the extract through activated carbon to strip caffeine, then recirculate
  4. 04Repeat for roughly 8-10 hours until the beans are about 99.9% caffeine-free; dry

Cup tendencies

no solvent residue; critics note flavour loss and a long process

Risk

Time-consuming; some soluble flavour compounds migrate; higher cost

Where it is used

Common in, per the method's sources

CanadaMexico

Origins and regions that list it

No origin record lists it yet.

Other decaffeination methods