Fun without the Buzz: Decaffeination Processes and Issues

Masterpiece of understated balance and completeness: sweetly acidy with a slight edge of crisp roastiness. Some chocolate-toned fruit, but the main appeal of this coffee is its resounding depth and flawless balance of roast and coffee. The finish is as long, rich and quietly complex as any I can remember.

Sweet floral and lemon tones shimmer above rather bitterly pungent bottom notes. The combination of juicy sweetness and pungent bitterness nets a sensation almost pineapple-like in its bracing contradiction. The pungent bottom notes, always present in Sidamos, are heavier than usual here, perhaps owing to the vicissitudes of decaffeination, though they settle and soften as the cup cools.

This extreme light-roasted coffee displays the nutty, brisk character of light to medium roasts, but adds an impressive sweetness and richness that less skillfully executed light roasts fail to deliver. Intensely but sweetly acidy; chocolate and nut notes in the aroma, dry fruit and pipe tobacco in the finish.

Wonderfully robust balance of sweet, roasty, and roundly acidy tones, with sweetness in the ascendancy. Some fruity complication, but the main appeal is pure, classic Latin-America coffee expression. The dark roast rounds and sweetens the acidity but leaves little bitterness behind.

Dryly acidy but sweet, expansively fruity, distinctly floral. A crisp roastiness turns the fruit toward chocolate. Only a very slight bitter astringency mars this otherwise luxuriously exotic cup.

Rich, almost disconcertingly distinct peanut tones dominate from aroma to finish. Supporting sweetness turns the peanut character agreeably fruity and chocolaty in the cup.

Intense, rich, straightforward. The aroma is deep-toned bittersweet chocolate with a slight roasty edge. Simplifies in the cup, perhaps under the impact of the roast, but expands again in the finish, with chocolate and hints of flowers.

Simple in terms of nuance but splendid structure: rich and pleasing balance of sweet and roasty tones with a pleasant shimmer of acidity and suggestions of citrus and pineapple. The roast tones are rather heavily bitter when the cup is hot, but soften and round beautifully as it cools.

Rich, round and balanced, with a sweetly understated acidity. Not a lot of nuance, but a hint of mustiness reads as an agreeably peppery chocolate. The finish is smooth, clean and long.

The darkish roast turns the fruit tones dry and crisply grapefruity. Some charred and perhaps musty notes, but when juxtaposed with the sweet fruit they read as a sort of pleasantly burned chocolate.

Dark roast in the classic bittersweet style, complicated by delicate floral, dry fruit and pipe tobacco notes. A distracting astringency dampens an otherwise balanced, complex dark-roast cup.