Solvents take out caffeine

HOW do people take the caffeine out of coffee? Regular raw (green) coffee beans are soaked in hot water or steamed for about five hours.

This softens the beans and helps open their pores. The beans are then treated with solvents made of chlorine, for example. Carbon dioxide is also used in the process. Then they are re-heated, so the solvents can take the caffeine with them in the steam.

Once the beans are decaffeinated, with 97 per cent of the caffeine removed, they are dried.

Then they go through the roasting process.