I know that this topic is regularly covered. Decaf often seems to be regularly roasted to quite a dark level. One of the best I have come across, and I buy it several times a year, is this offering from Extract .....
With Extract, if you simply join their mailing list, they send you a 30% off code (or that used to be the case)........many have tried it but at least if you do not like it, you have not shelled out full price!
Thanks, I'll give this a go! I am very happy with the crown and canvas sparkling decaf, I am rubbish at describing roast level but the beans are clearly more dense than my usual - on espresso I need to grind a good few steps finer to even get close to achieving pressure. I will be drinking it later in a cafetiere and it certainly hits the tasting notes for me.
Crown and canvas decaf makes for a lovely cafetiere coffee. Much easier for me to work with, the feld 47 makes quick work of the quantity needed versus the very long, very fine grind required for espresso.
I think crown and canvas might be my favourites so far overall - their Brazil is absolute delicious, so sweet and low acidity but with some fruit, just what I like from an espresso. The decaf is gorgeous, doesn't even occur to me to be a decaf, just a really nice coffee with bags of fruit, just what I like from a filter/immersion!
I know that this topic is regularly covered. Decaf often seems to be regularly roasted to quite a dark level. One of the best I have come across, and I buy it several times a year, is this offering from Extract .....
With Extract, if you simply join their mailing list, they send you a 30% off code (or that used to be the case)........many have tried it but at least if you do not like it, you have not shelled out full price!
For those of you who have caf during the day and defac in the afternoon / evening, how do you go about changing your grinder settings? Do you note where you've dialled it into for your main beans, then change it to your decaf setting, then back to it's previous position for caf beans again, or do you use a second grinder, or do you just leave it where it is and grind as for your caf beans?
I use a hand grinder. It needs a significantly finer grind than my daytime beans- I guess the question is how different your beans are, but decaf usually needs a finer grind. (I guess a very dark roast caffeinated bean and a light roast decaf might meet in the middle) it also prevents cross contaminating!
I know that this topic is regularly covered. Decaf often seems to be regularly roasted to quite a dark level. One of the best I have come across, and I buy it several times a year, is this offering from Extract .....
With Extract, if you simply join their mailing list, they send you a 30% off code (or that used to be the case)........many have tried it but at least if you do not like it, you have not shelled out full price!
@dfk41Thanks for this. Received a bag of this sugarcane decaf today and I was really surprised. Decaf has improved massively since I last tried it over 5 years ago.
@Lucian_Blue I'm dialling this in on the Vesuvius. Would you suggest a shirt pre infusion at 2bar then up to 6bar and gradually decreasing the pressure through the extraction? Any profiles you are willing to share?
I am just trying Coffee Compass Sucker Punch blend and have found I need to tighten up the grind quite alot and also use much less milk to get a respectable latte. Of course I am comparing with my usual caffinated beans but that seems obvious anyway.
I am just trying Coffee Compass Sucker Punch blend and have found I need to tighten up the grind quite alot and also use much less milk to get a respectable latte. Of course I am comparing with my usual caffinated beans but that seems obvious anyway.
Yeah I'm lucky in that respect that I can run a pressure profile on the Vesuvius so that I don't need to keep adjusting the grind between decaf and regular beans. For the regular I dose 18g and the decaf have dialled it in to use 19g and run a longer profile with lower pressures. Turns out very drinkable for sure.
I know that this topic is regularly covered. Decaf often seems to be regularly roasted to quite a dark level. One of the best I have come across, and I buy it several times a year, is this offering from Extract .....
With Extract, if you simply join their mailing list, they send you a 30% off code (or that used to be the case)........many have tried it but at least if you do not like it, you have not shelled out full price!
I've been wondering if caffeine has been causing my long established sleep problems. I did some searching on here and found your post from years ago about switching to decaf, so I'm gonna give it a try. My 1kg from Extract as recommended has arrived, thanks for sharing!
I've just ordered some of the decaf from Extract. I am currently using their half speed (50% decaf) beans and really enjoying them so thought I'd give the full decaf a go as well as a few of their others.
I have to plug ours. We wanted a decaf that was like the emerging single origin decafs that major roasters like Crankhouse have been sourcing for years. We didn't want a dark-roast blend. Our Rwandan decaf is great as both espresso and filter. The espresso smacks you in the mouth with deep Assam tea-like notes, but mellows and sweetens as a V60. We're very happy with it, and it should be getting its first outing on this forum this week since I know a lot went out with orders last week!
I have to plug ours. We wanted a decaf that was like the emerging single origin decafs that major roasters like Crankhouse have been sourcing for years. We didn't want a dark-roast blend. Our Rwandan decaf is great as both espresso and filter. The espresso smacks you in the mouth with deep Assam tea-like notes, but mellows and sweetens as a V60. We're very happy with it, and it should be getting its first outing on this forum this week since I know a lot went out with orders last week!
We've started drinking more decaf recently and searching around for exciting beans.
We're currently on Neighbourhoods decaf which is very nice (black cherry, toffee and treacle,something akin to a black forest gateau), just about dialed in after a couple shots.
Next on the list to try are coffee by the casuals, black cat and crown and canvas
Firstly I'll hold my hands up and declare I'm an espresso maker newby, having come from a B2C that I've been using for around 10 years on Litchfield catering espresso coffee beans (ie probably quite old, over roasted and dark). I bought the CBTC decaf beans the other week and have been trying to dial them in for my taste ever since. Having read lots on here, I've tried everything from longer ratios, different grind settings (and hence timings) and also a quick play with temperatures.
I have a 1425W GC with OPV mod (to just over 9 Bar at first 'extraction') measured using FairRecycler's gauge fitted in between the OPV and boiler, an XMT-7100 PID set to 93 deg C (same PID as Mr Shades?) and a 1Zpresso JX Pro grinder into a 21g Marzocco basket and naked portafilter using, I think, the standard aluminium shower screen holder and original shower screen.
I grind 20g of beans and have extracted anything from 20g through to 60g of output, aiming to keep around the 30 second mark by adjusting the grind setting. I think there's only been one cup I haven't drunk, and that's when I tamped to loosely and it spritzed and sprayed everywhere!! I had a brief try at 92 and also at 94 deg, but no real difference. Regarding pressures and temps when extracting, the pressure will start around the 9 or 9.1 or 9.2 bar and will sometimes drop slightly to around 8.5 or 8.6 bar as the shot progresses. The temp can drop to around 88 at the end of the shot. It's hard to keep track of the temp, pressure, time and output all at the same time!! The most successful I've had has been where it was probably a 20g in for a 30g out (so 1:1.5?) but even that wasn't 'exiting' for me. I make the espresso and then top it up in my mug with hot water (not boiling) and a splash of milk.
I'm almost at the point of giving up using the GC and trying it in my Aeropress (with adjusted grind setting on the JX Pro) and seeing how I get on there, but if possible, I'd like to use the GC. What else should I be trying?
I've been using the 'Extract' decaf for the last week. Initially I was thinking "oh no, its so dark, I'm not gonna like it". But now I've come to notice that it doesn't taste that much different to regular espresso. I need to try a few other decafs to see what they're like in comparison, but for now at least I don't need to give up on coffee completely.
With regards to brew ratios, I'm doing 18g to 36g in around 30 seconds at 94c. I did experiment by going down to 90c but that was a big mistake! So if your machine is dropping to 88c then that could be an issue.
I get through quite a lot of coffee, all decaf. I'm not earning much so economising. Coffee maker is an aeropress and I drink it black. Beans are ground in a Mazzer Major.
So I'm looking to pay not much more than £3.50 for 250g. I've used a fair amount of Waitrose Peru beans, which are OK but there's better.
@les24preludes Morning Les, have you thought about why supermarket style beans, and I include Lavazza, Illy and the likes are so much cheaper than say artisan roasters? Beans are graded according to quality. The 'quality' is determined by a number of proccess, as laid down. by the SCAA. SO, if you went to the butchers and bought some chuck steak and wrapped it in pastry, would you then presume that it is a Beef Wellington?
Lavazza do a range of commercial beans in Ikg packs. They are for hotels etc. I tried a couple of arabica ones named something like Iterra. One was rather weak and insipid and needed a high ratio to achieve anything. Cheaper one. Another behaved much like a fresh roasted and was rather nice. At the time a bit more expensive but Amazon price has rocketed since. I drink coffee that comes out anything from treacle to hiss water so my only interest is taste so insipid means weak and no character - boring and nothing special.
They do a whole range but can only be found on their global site. They can work out a lot cheaper than fresh roasted - or did on the nice one for a while. That could be down to the Amazon seller. 🤣 The UK site seems to be dedicated to pods and their usual beans.
The Mokarabia and Cafe Roma beans are quite acceptable in taste on my aeropress otherwise I wouldn't recommend them as an economic option. I don't recommend anything I'm not happy drinking myself.
They've been on the shelf for a little while, since they don't fluff up in the grinder. But all the same, they taste OK and better than the worst freshly roasted beans I've had in the past. This is me being "educational" in return. Not all freshly roasted beans taste better than off the shelf beans. I've drunk only decaf for many years and I've been through dozens of freshly roasted kinds of beans, some of which were pretty vile. So I have a good idea of the decaf market. The beans themselves may be of quite good quality - simply that they're not freshly roasted.
The Lavazza beans I mentioned are fresher and fluff up more in the grinder. They taste pretty nice, and as above better than the worst freshly roasted beans I've had in the past. My recommendation for these economic alternatives still stands. If you're hard up give them a try. You may notice the both Cafe Roma and Mokarabia get 5 star feedback from users on the Next Day Coffee site.
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