Coffee Glossary · Processing
Decaffeination (Swiss Water, EA, CO2)
Industrial removal of caffeine from green coffee before roasting, targeting 97%+ extraction. Leading methods: Swiss Water (caffeine migrates into green-coffee-extract-saturated water through osmosis — chemical-free, specialty's favorite), sugarcane EA (ethyl acetate derived from cane fermentation, common in Colombia, leaves subtle sweetness), and supercritical CO2 (selective, gentle, capital-intensive). Decaf processing slightly darkens green beans and makes them roast faster; quality decafs start from quality lots, since the process amplifies nothing.
Related terms
Green Coffee
Coffee in its internationally traded form: the dried, milled seed of the coffee cherry before roasting,…
Arabica (Coffea arabica)
The species behind roughly 60% of world coffee and nearly all specialty-grade lots. Arabica evolved in…
Cupping
Coffee's standardized tasting protocol: coarse-ground samples steeped in bowls under strict ratios and…
Hand Sorting
The final human quality gate: workers — overwhelmingly women, at origin after origin — picking defective…
Hulling
The dry-mill step that strips the parchment husk (or, for naturals, the entire dried cherry shell) from green…
Mucilage
The sticky, sugar-rich fruit layer clinging to parchment after the cherry's skin is pulped away. What happens…
Reading up before buying? Volcana Coffee exports SGS-inspected specialty Arabica and Fine Robusta from the Bolaven Plateau, Laos — and we're happy to walk new importers through every term on a real offer sheet.
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