Why We Don't Sell Decaf (and What We Recommend Instead)
The question we get asked almost as often as the subscription question is do you have decaf?
Short answer: no, not yet. We get why people want it. We want it for some of our own friends and family. But the math on small-batch decaf doesn't work for us right now, and we'd rather be honest about that than ship a decaf that doesn't meet the standard we hold the rest of our catalog to.
This post is the longer version. Why decaf is genuinely harder than it sounds, what we'd need to change to offer it well, and what we recommend in the meantime if you're looking for something warm and comforting to drink at 7 PM when you've already had your coffee.
For the related question of when to stop drinking regular coffee in the day, our why we don't drink coffee past noon post has the practical answer. For what makes a small-batch roastery different from the subscription-first companies that can offer decaf, our why we don't do subscriptions yet post covers the inventory math. This one is specifically about decaf.
What decaf actually is
Decaf is coffee that has had most of the caffeine removed. The beans are still coffee — they still get roasted, ground, brewed the same way — but the caffeine content is reduced to under 0.1% by weight, which is the FDA threshold for being labeled "decaffeinated."
There are a few different ways to remove caffeine from green coffee, and the method matters for both cost and flavor:
Swiss Water Process: Green beans are soaked in water, which dissolves the caffeine (along with other soluble compounds). The caffeine is then filtered out using activated charcoal, and the beans are re-soaked in the now-caffeine-free solution to reabsorb the flavor compounds while leaving the caffeine behind. This is the method most specialty roasters prefer because it doesn't use chemical solvents. It produces the cleanest-tasting decaf.
Chemical solvent process (methylene chloride or ethyl acetate): Green beans are steamed and then rinsed with a solvent that binds to the caffeine. The solvent is then evaporated off. This is the cheaper method and the one used for most commercial decaf. The beans taste fine, but traces of the solvent concern some drinkers.
CO2 process: Green beans are exposed to pressurized carbon dioxide, which acts as a solvent to extract the caffeine. This is the most expensive method and is used by the largest specialty roasters. The end result is similar to Swiss Water in flavor terms.
We'd use Swiss Water Process if we offered decaf. We're not going to ship a chemically decaffeinated coffee. The cost of doing it right is the actual barrier.
The math on small-batch decaf
Here's the thing that most customers don't realize: decaf is roughly 30–50% more expensive than regular coffee, all else equal. The green coffee itself costs more because the decaffeination process adds a step at the supplier. Shipping the green coffee costs the same, but the per-pound cost is higher.
For a roaster like Stumptown or Counter Culture, this isn't a problem. They buy decaf green in 40-bag lots, roast it in batches of 30–60 pounds at a time, and turn it over quickly because their catalog has a decaf SKU that's a meaningful percentage of total sales.
For us, the math is different. We roast in batches that fit on a 1kg or 3kg roaster. Our catalog has 15 SKUs, most of them single origin. If we added a decaf, we'd need to:
- Buy the decaf green in a meaningful quantity (smallest sensible lot is usually 20–40 pounds, which is enough for 100–200 retail bags).
- Roast it weekly to keep it fresh (otherwise the decaf sits in inventory past its window).
- Hold inventory across 16 SKUs instead of 15, which doubles the per-SKU complexity for our small team.
The break-even on the decaf is somewhere around 40–50 retail bags per month. We'd need a meaningful portion of our customers to buy decaf regularly for the math to work. Right now we don't have evidence that demand is at that level.
If we got 30 customer emails a month asking specifically for decaf and saying they'd order it weekly, we'd probably add it. Right now the emails are 4–6 a month, which is signal but not enough signal to commit to the inventory.
What about "just doing one batch every few weeks"
The other option people suggest is "just roast a small batch of decaf every few weeks for the people who want it." We've thought about this. It has its own problems:
- Freshness still matters for decaf. Even without the caffeine, decaf beans go stale the same way regular beans do. A decaf batch roasted 3 weeks ago is a stale decaf batch.
- Inventory turnover. If we roast 5 pounds of decaf every 3 weeks and sell 3 pounds in that window, we accumulate inventory. The accumulation isn't huge but it's enough to throw off the freshness story we tell everywhere else.
- The customer expectation problem. "Just do it occasionally" tends to mean "occasionally when I want it," which means we either hold inventory (the problem above) or we tell customers "sorry, we're between batches." Neither is a great experience.
If we add decaf, we'd want to do it on a regular cadence — same weekly rhythm as the rest of our roast schedule — or not at all.
Why we're not anti-decaf (we just can't do it well right now)
We want to be clear about something. We don't think decaf is bad. We don't think decaf drinkers are wrong. We drink decaf sometimes too, when we're traveling or when we've had too much coffee in the day. The Swiss Water Process produces genuinely good decaf that tastes like coffee, not like the stale stuff in the office kitchen.
What we don't want to do is ship decaf that doesn't meet the standard we hold the rest of our catalog to. The catalog has 15 SKUs that all get the same attention to freshness, the same weekly roast cadence, the same "Roasted on [date]" stamp on every bag. Adding a 16th SKU that compromises on those promises would weaken the brand promise more than it would help the people who want decaf.
If we can't do it well, we'd rather not do it.
What we recommend instead
Here are the three things we tell people who email asking for decaf.
Option 1: Herbal tea after noon
This is our default recommendation. Our hibiscus berry tea is naturally caffeine-free, tart, and vivid — it drinks like a tea-ade, not like a tea. Our peach paradise is caffeine-free, gentle, and great with honey. Our mango treat is caffeine-free and works cold-brewed.
If you're looking for a warm, comforting drink at 7 PM that won't keep you up, herbal tea is the right answer for most people. The flavor profiles are completely different from coffee, but the ritual of "make something warm, sit with it for 10 minutes" is the same.
For the longer walkthrough of how to think about evening drinks and caffeine timing, our why we don't drink coffee past noon post is the practical guide.
Option 2: Half-caf if you're brewing at home
If you're brewing your own coffee at home and want to drink it later in the day, you can mix regular and decaf beans in a 50/50 or 60/40 ratio. The resulting cup has about half the caffeine of a regular cup but still tastes like coffee.
The catch is that you'd need to source your own decaf, since we don't sell it. Most grocery stores carry decaf, and the bigger specialty roasters (Stumptown, Counter Culture, Blue Bottle) ship decaf that you can order by the bag. Buy a bag of their decaf, mix it with our regular coffee in a 50/50 ratio, brew as normal.
This isn't a perfect solution. The decaf beans will roast differently than our beans, the flavor profile won't be identical, and the cup will have a slightly muddied character compared to 100% single-origin. But it works, and it lets you extend your coffee drinking later into the day without keeping yourself up.
Option 3: Switch to matcha in the afternoon
If you want something with caffeine but not as much, our matcha is the answer. A typical serving of matcha has about 70mg of caffeine, which is roughly half of a regular cup of coffee. The caffeine in matcha releases more slowly because it's bound to the larger tea molecules, so the energy lift is gentler and the crash is less.
For most people, a 2 PM matcha works better than a 2 PM coffee. The ritual is similar — whisk the matcha, sit with the bowl, drink it slow. The flavor is completely different, but the morning-coffee-and-afternoon-tea pattern is a common one for people who want caffeine in the afternoon without disrupting their sleep.
For a deeper comparison of matcha and coffee caffeine, our matcha vs coffee caffeine guide post has the breakdown.
When we'd add decaf
We're not opposed to decaf forever. The criteria we'd need to meet are:
- Enough demand to justify the inventory. 30+ customers a month asking specifically for decaf and committing to regular orders.
- A reliable Swiss Water Process green supplier. We've identified two we trust; both would work. The question is just whether we want to add the SKU right now.
- A clear place in the catalog. Probably as the 16th SKU, roasted on the same Wednesday cadence as everything else, with the same "Roasted on [date]" stamp.
- Honest pricing. Decaf would need to be priced higher than our regular coffee because the green costs more. We'd rather charge a fair price for decaf than subsidize it.
If we hit those four criteria — and we might in 2027 as the catalog grows — we'll add it. For now, the herbal tea recommendation stands.
What we won't do
There are a few things we're not going to do, even if asked:
- Add decaf and price it the same as regular coffee. The green costs more, and we'd be subsidizing it. The pricing has to reflect the actual cost.
- Add decaf and let it sit in inventory. If we add it, we roast it on the weekly cadence and we don't compromise on freshness.
- Source decaf from suppliers we can't verify. If we can't trace the decaf back to a specific farm or cooperative, we don't ship it. The same standard applies to our regular coffee.
- Pretend the math works for us. Some of our customers have suggested we "just do it" and absorb the cost. We're a small business, and absorbing the cost means raising prices on everything else. That's not a tradeoff we're willing to make.
The honest answer
If you only remember one thing from this post: we don't carry decaf yet because the math on small-batch decaf doesn't work for us at our current scale, and we'd rather be honest about that than ship something we'd be embarrassed by.
In the meantime, our herbal teas are the answer for most people. Our matcha works if you want some caffeine. And if you're brewing at home, half-caf with another roaster's decaf is a real option.
When we add decaf — and we might, in 2027 — we'll publish a post about it. Until then, we appreciate the customers who keep asking. The signal matters.
For the broader story of how we decide what to stock in the first place, our how we pick which coffees to stock (and which we won't) post is the operational walkthrough. For the decaf-adjacent question of caffeine timing through the day, our why we don't drink coffee past noon post is the practical read. For the comparison of matcha to coffee in terms of caffeine, our matcha vs coffee caffeine guide post has the breakdown.
Brew slow. Sip slow. ☕