A number of coffee drinkers have a concern about their level of caffeine consumption and many of these same consumers find that the aroma and/or flavor of the fully decaffeinated coffees presently available is unsatisfactory. These individuals are, therefore, likely to consume caffeinated coffee beverages but to minimize their intake of same. It is seen that a partially decaffeinated coffee beverage (say 40 to 60% decaffeinated) which approaches the flavor and aroma of fully caffeinated coffee beverages would enable the aforementioned consumers to increase their level of coffee consumption without increasing their intake of caffeine.
A process of producing a partially decaffeinated soluble coffee product which contains a flavor and aroma improvement over present decaffeinated soluble coffee products would be an advantageous advance in the art, especially if the process could be accomplished without the use of organic solvents and without the necessity of constructing and operating separate coffee decaffeination facilities.
It has been found that attempts to produce partially decaffeinated coffee by merely reducing the percent decaffeination effected in known decaffeination processes does not result in coffee products which are significantly improved in flavor and aroma over their fully (i.e. 97% or more) decaffeinated counterparts. Decaffeination processes such as water decaffeination of green beans, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,309,092 to Berry et al.; the solvent decaffeination of green beans, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,263 to Patel et al.; or the decaffeination of aqueous extracts of roasted coffee, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,933,395 to Adler et al. are sufficiently detrimental to coffee flavor and aroma that use of these processes to effect any significant degree of decaffeination is readily detectable. In addition, all these processes include the use of organic solvents such as the chlorinated hydrocarbons, which solvents are subject to governmental regulation.
It would, of course, be conceivable to use one of the conventional decaffeination processes to produce a decaffeinated coffee fraction which is then combined with a fully caffeinated fraction, which fully caffeinated fraction is able to provide a measure of desirable aroma and flavor to the final coffee product and beverage. This procedure, however, does not avoid the use of chlorinated or other solvents. Furthermore, to practice this procedure the coffee processor would be forced to either construct and operate a decaffeination unit or purchase decaffeinated green beans from an outside supplier.
It would be desirable if a soluble partially decaffeinated coffee could be produced which did not involve the use of organic solvents and which could be obtained from soluble coffee processing equipment without the necessity to construct separate decaffeination facilities. Published West German Patent Application No. 2,150,729 describes a process for producing a decaffeinated soluble coffee product with conventional percolation equipment; however, the process described therein is economically unattractive and the product produced thereby would not be regarded as desirable by caffeinated soluble coffee consumers.