There have been many discussions on the magical world of decaf. Until recently, it used to be viewed as the devils spawn by many in coffee. A number of years ago I was experiencing severe sleep issues and I put it down to caffeine, so for several months went down the decaf route. The result was that it did not help my sleep patterns but I found I could enjoy many decaf beans. I tried a lot of beans and on the whole was disappointed. A good roaster has skillsets and can manage many combinations of bean types. I think a lot of the beans I tried showed a general lack of understanding in roasting methods. Generally, I found the tastiest decaf beans were roasted to medium plus, but definitely not burnt.A good roaster can go to City without leaving you a burnt ash flavour! There are folks, like @"LMSC"#16 who are far more technical than myself (and keep records) but not being based in the UK makes it hard to recommend @"JHCCoffee"#639. Perhaps emailing likely roasters and asking about their process. In addition, you have to decide whether you favour Swiss Water or one of the other techniques. This is a really good UK roaster who only does decaf beans, but if you explore his site (especially the blog) you might pick up some pointers decadentdecaf.com I have had great results with the following beans. Read up a little on them. https://extractcoffee.co.uk/shop/sugarcane-decaf/ My favourite https://www.smithstreetcoffeeroasters.co.uk/product-page/five-archers-decaf I think Coffee Compass are one of the best UK roasters for any bean! https://www.coffeecompass.co.uk/collections/decaf Good luck matey!

> @"dfk41"#p34455 Nicaraguan rabbit hole! Hope you are still enjoying it !

Decaf secrets, is there such a thing?

dfk41

There have been many discussions on the magical world of decaf. Until recently, it used to be viewed as the devils spawn by many in coffee. A number of years ago I was experiencing severe sleep issues and I put it down to caffeine, so for several months went down the decaf route. The result was that it did not help my sleep patterns but I found I could enjoy many decaf beans. I tried a lot of beans and on the whole was disappointed. A good roaster has skillsets and can manage many combinations of bean types. I think a lot of the beans I tried showed a general lack of understanding in roasting methods.
Generally, I found the tastiest decaf beans were roasted to medium plus, but definitely not burnt.A good roaster can go to City without leaving you a burnt ash flavour! There are folks, like @LMSC who are far more technical than myself (and keep records) but not being based in the UK makes it hard to recommend @JHCCoffee. Perhaps emailing likely roasters and asking about their process. In addition, you have to decide whether you favour Swiss Water or one of the other techniques. This is a really good UK roaster who only does decaf beans, but if you explore his site (especially the blog) you might pick up some pointers
decadentdecaf.com
I have had great results with the following beans. Read up a little on them.
https://extractcoffee.co.uk/shop/sugarcane-decaf/ My favourite
https://www.smithstreetcoffeeroasters.co.uk/product-page/five-archers-decaf

I think Coffee Compass are one of the best UK roasters for any bean!
https://www.coffeecompass.co.uk/collections/decaf
Good luck matey!

LMSC

Perfect timing dfk41 ! I was about to ask you what had thought of Coffee Compass decaf. They have a decent collection. Did you try all of them please ?

I have tried a few roasters and would happily go to Extract Sugarcane, Smith Street Carbonated and Blackcat Swiss Water. The decaf file is attached under my signature.

I was a little disappointed with the last bag from Extract. I still have some left.

dfk41

LMSC I have not had any CC decaf recently matey. I usually buy from them at Xmas but got waylaid this year, although I did receive a bag of their Sweet Bourbon which was excellent. I am still stuck down the @Inspector Nicaraguan rabbit hole!

Inspector

Oh what about our little gem Nicaraguan beans 😁

LMSC

dfk41 Nicaraguan rabbit hole!

Hope you are still enjoying it !

gordy53

my wife has DeCaf and I use an 1Zpresso J max for grinding and I use a Eureka Mignon for my ’fully loaded beans, the ‘recipe’ for my wife beans are pretty spot on but I notice that when I tamp the beans they seem ‘softer’ and tamp down further in the PF and the puck is always very wet when I go to knock it out, this seems to happen with different Roasters beans, is this typical for Decaf beans?, I hope people can understand what I am on about

LMSC

gordy53 puck is always very wet

Sorry, not in our case.You might consider giving the puck a few extra seconds to become drier before knocking out. In short, remove the PF, flush the group and knock out the puck.

Edit:

This doesn’t happen in the case of both double
and triple baskets. The latter would still have 35%-40% head space after filling 21g.

Inspector

gordy53 try to updose by 1gr, wet pucks usually happens because of underdosing. Well, at least that’s my experience.

hornbyben

gordy53 from what you’ve described I suspect it’s just the impact of bean density for that particular bean. It’s not taking up as much room, so there is more headspace. When the pressure releases at the end of the shot water remains in the head space giving a wet puck.

Updosing should sort it, or if the coffee tastes good then accept it, the coffee doesn’t care

gordy53

yes I think you are right the actual Coffee amount seems to be less in the PF so I will add a bot more beans when I make her next Coffee, thanks for the replies

gordy53

I did add an extra gram and the ‘puck’ was not as wet so that looks like the way to go