As I was sitting this morning sipping my decaf coffee, I wondered to myself: what is decaf? I had heard vague rumors that decaf coffee still had a significant amount of caffeine in it. I had recollections of somebody telling me they washed the beans or something before grinding them - maybe that washed the caffeine off? I had switched to decaf a while back because I am quite sensitive to caffeine, and while I wanted a pick-me-up in the morning it was making me too headache-y and jittery. The taste is definitely different, more watery and a bit less earthy, but not unpleasant. So I was curious. And when I’m curious, I turn to wikipedia.

So, first things first: apparently, my recollections of vague rumors about the caffeine content of decaf coffee were totally wrong. It has very little caffeine. In the US it’s supposed to have 3% or less, although studies of coffee in the wild suggest more like 5-7%. Either way, my morning decaf coffee is not giving me any caffeine. Also, my vague notion that they washed the beans is wrong too. It’s a pretty nasty chemical process involving solvents, which used to be really bad stuff like benzene but is still sorta-bad stuff with names too long to pronounce. Scientists are working on a better method involving superheated carbon dioxide and other awesome things.

So: vague recollections are no match for data, learning is a good thing, and science is cool. And now I should probably mix in some regular coffee with my decaf if that’s what I really want. A good haul for a single morning!