Water is Essential to Our Coffee Experience

We all know water is essential for life and our planet would not last long without it. But have you ever thought about how important water is to your beloved cup of coffee? On March 22, Cornelia Bean celebrated United Nations World Water Day in honour of how precious water is to us and how much we need it for delicious coffee.

A cup of coffee is 98% water and we rely on clean accessible water from the first steps in coffee harvesting all the way through to brewing. Some of these steps may be obvious, such as the importance of good quality water in the brewing process. However, one area you may be less familiar with is the Swiss Water decaffeination process.

All of Cornelia Beans' decaffeinated coffee is processed using the Swiss Water technique in Vancouver. Instead of using harsh chemicals to remove the caffeine (and beautiful flavours) from unroasted green beans, the Swiss Water process gently removes the caffeine using water, leaving more natural and flavourful beans.

In an (over) simplified explanation, there are three key steps to the process:

  • Green unroasted beans are cleaned and saturated with water from the coastal mountains of British Columbia. This batch of water extracts the caffeine and flavour molecules and becomes the Green Coffee Extract. The beans from this batch are discarded.
  • The Green Coffee Extract then passes through a charcoal filter so that all caffeine molecules are captured, leaving only a flavour-charged liquid. This liquid is then used to rinse subsequent batches of coffee, leaving the beans without caffeine but reinfused with their original wonderful flavours.
  • Over the next 10 hours, caffeine levels are monitored until the beans are certified 99.9% caffeine free and shipped off to specialty coffee roasters.

We are proud to currently offer three outstanding options for Swiss Water decaf coffee beans: Dillano’s Decaf Colombia, Dillano’s Decaf Espresso, and Propeller’s Decaf Swiss Water. Distinct roasts and distinct flavours, but all guaranteed to be caffeine free and full of body and flavour.

Let’s raise a cup of coffee to water and commit to preserving this sacred resource. For ourselves, our children and grandchildren, and perfect coffee!

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Photography: Pauline Boldt

 


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