 Decaf
Coffee is decaffeinated using a variety of processes. All of which are relatively harmless to your health, but harmful to the beverage quality. Almost all the methods of decaffeinating coffee consist of soaking the beans in water to dissolve the caffeine, extracting the caffeine with either a solvent or activated carbon, and then re-soaking the beans in the decaffeinated water to reabsorb the flavor compounds that were lost in the initial extraction. The solvents typically used are methylene chloride or ethyl acetate, which both have a low boiling point. Since ethyl acetate is found naturally in fruits you will hear people call this process "natural." In any case the solvent never comes in contact with the bean itself, but only the water solution containing the caffeine that was previously extracted from the bean. Therefore the process is relatively benign. All methods of decaffeination are based on equilibrium principles and solvent/solute properties. As such, neither all of the caffeine is removed from the coffee, nor are all of the flavor compounds returned or left in the coffee. The chemical composition of decaffeinated coffee is altered, and therefore the flavor and aroma are changed.  Swiss Water ProcessŪ
With the Swiss Water ProcessŪ the green beans are soaked in hot water to remove the caffeine and compounds responsible for much of the flavor of the coffee. The first batch of beans is then discarded, while the caffeine is stripped from the solution by means of activated carbon filters. This leaves a solution saturated with flavor compounds, which is then used to soak a new batch of green coffee. The principle is that the solution is saturated with all components soluble in water other than caffeine, and therefore only the caffeine in the bean is allowed to escape whereas the rest of the compounds are in equilibrium. The Swiss WaterŪ decaffination process is natural and 100% certified organic. For further information on the Swiss Water process see www.swisswater.com or www.coffeesearch.org.
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