Best Decaf Coffee to Buy 2023

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Best decaf coffee at a glance

Best for espresso: Pact, from £9.95
Best sweeter coffee: Mission Coffee Works, from £9.70
Best roasted beans: Full Court Press, from £14
Best Columbian coffee: WatchHouse, from £12
Best value for money coffee: Modern Standard, from £8
Best rich coffee: Broomfield Coffee Company, from £11.15

The best decaf coffees to buy in 2023

Pact Coffee decaf

Available from Pact Coffee (£9.95)

Best for espresso

Pact change their decaf offerings often, but often have multiple options to choose from. I tried their El Diamante, a Columbian sugar cane processed decaf with hints of dark chocolate. It is medium roasted but towards the darker side, which makes for a bold-tasting espresso. They recently launched a decaf from Asomuprisma Women’s Association, a female coffee producers group in Colombia, which should last until the end of the year.

Available from:
Pact Coffee (£9.95)

Mission Coffee Works Sans Decaf

Available from Mission Coffee Works (£9.70)

Best sweeter coffee

Processed using the sugarcane decaffeination process, this coffee received a two-star Great Taste Award in 2021. The recyclable packaging has fun illustrations and tactile stickers.

All the information is well laid out and they helpfully recommend that their decaf can be used in all brew methods. Tasting notes are milk chocolate, raspberry and praline. Available in 250g or 1kg bags.

Available from:
Mission Coffee Works (£9.70)

Full Court Press Villamaria Decaf

Available from Full Court Press (£14)

Best roasted beans

Coffee beans from Villamaria, Colombia, processed using the sugarcane decaffeination method. It is ‘omni roasted’ so you can brew both espresso and filter coffee with these beans. The coffee is available in 250g or 500g bags, with green beans sourced from a great quality, progressive supplier – Raw Material.

I really enjoyed this coffee a lot as a filter. It was very pleasant to drink: clean, light and bright with some good acidity to it. Tasting notes: mandarin oranges first, then black grapes and a shortbread finish.

Available from:
Full Court Press (£14)

WatchHouse Galeras

Available from WatchHouse (£12)

Best Columbian coffee

This comes in a compact little box, with a chic, modern and minimalist design to the packaging. The coffee is another Columbian decaf that uses the sugarcane decaffeination process. The coffee comes in 250g bags but there is also an option for subscribing, which gets a discount.

The beans can be ground for any brew method. Tasting notes of orange, milk chocolate and biscuit.

Available from:

WatchHouse (£12)

Modern Standard Coffee Mellow Decaf

Available from Modern Standard Coffee (from £8.50)

A brown bag of Modern Standard Mellow Decaf

Best value for money coffee

This decaf comes from Pijao, Colombia and is decaffeinated using the sugarcane process. There’s plenty of great information on the back of the bag with a QR code that will take you to a website with comprehensive pour-over filter instructions or espresso demo, plus recipes.

This coffee is great value for money and has a very balanced taste that is bold but not too heavy. Good for espresso or filter coffee. Tasting notes: chocolate, citric acidity and sweet toffee. They also belong to onepercentfortheplanet.org, which is great.

Available from:
Modern Standard Coffee (from £8.50)

Broomfield Coffee Company Swiss Water Decaf

Available from Broomfield Coffee Company (£13)

Best rich coffee

The only coffee on this list that is processed by the Swiss Water Process and is not Colombian. This decaffeination method is exclusively done in Vancouver, Canada, which is why it might not be as common to find compared to the sugarcane process, but there are many roasters in the UK who do offer coffee decaffeinated using this method.

This Honduran decaf is scored highly by the prestigious Speciality Coffee Association with 83 points (anything above 80 is very good quality). It was roasted slightly darker than I would prefer, but it was definitely rich and nutty, and great as an espresso with milk. Tasting notes: rich, nutty, chocolate and praline, mellow body.

Available from:
Broomfield Coffee Company (£13)

How much caffeine is in decaf coffee?

Decaffeinated coffee ranges from 96-99.9% caffeine-free.

How is decaf coffee made?

Coffee is always decaffeinated as a green bean, before it has been roasted. Caffeine is water soluble, so water is used to decaffeinate the beans. In order to minimise the water stripping out the other desirable compounds that coffee has, decaffeinating agents are added to the water with the beans to speed up the process. There are different ways of doing this:

Ethyl acetate method – This is the most common method that we have encountered. Ethyl acetate occurs naturally in nature (found in the fermentation of fruits, most often in ripe bananas), but can also be synthetically produced. This method retains flavour well and is safe in trace amounts.
Methylene chloride method – The FDA has deemed any residue of this chemical left on the beans totally safe and would likely be burned off in the roasting process.
Swiss Water Method – This chemical-free process uses the concepts of solubility and osmosis to draw the caffeine out of the beans using carbon filters. It is environmentally friendly and good flavour remains. This process is regularly audited to ensure it's 99.9% caffeine free.
C02 method – a generally expensive process, so mostly done on large commercial/supermarket decaf coffees

Is decaf coffee acidic?

Decaf coffee isn’t as acidic as caffeinated coffee because it loses some acids during the process of decaffeination. However, I would argue that how light or dark the decaffeinated coffee is roasted afterwards might affect perception of the coffee’s acidity. Though a lighter roasted decaf coffee may provide slightly more flavour.

What are the benefits of decaf coffee?

If you’re a person who is sensitive to caffeine, prone to anxiety, nervousness or generally naturally has a lot of energy, then decaf is a great alternative because you can still enjoy the experience of drinking a delicious coffee without the jittery effects from the caffeine. For more on the health benefits of coffee, check out our How much caffeine should I drink? health guide over on our sister site BBC Good Food.

Overall, decaffeinated coffee won't necessarily taste as complex or as well processed as roasted speciality coffee, but if the coffee is good quality and the decaffeinating process is gentle and done well, then there's no reason why you can't still find great decaf coffees.