Unfortunately, just another exaggerated and "no-real-life-context" story taking the extreme position by matching some "technical data"and trying to make it apply to actual industry activity. I am by no means educated or informed on the US coffee scene, but taking the local domestic AUS market as an example...... Decaf robusta........give me a break. Never seen it in Oz and doubt I ever will. There are 2 main suppliers of a chemical-free type decaf that are sold in the AUS market - Mountain Water and Swiss Water. The market share of these combined would be well up over 90+%, but I just don't know......it could be a lot higher. The non-chemical decaf is generally the EA type and I would be surprised if many roasters are using those products these days as competition is too fierce to win and retain customers, it's certainly not worth throwing away reputation to save a few bucks on the cheaper EA decaf - alas, some practices are die-hard old-school. Chemical-free decaf is expensive and the arabica coffees used are some of the best grades available from their respective origins. The quality control in raw coffee sourcing rivals any specialty coffee roaster around the world. We do a lot of decaf (perhaps higher proportions that other roasters our size) - sometimes hundreds of kilos per week - and the feedback we have been receiving for many years now is that our decaf is comparable with quality non-decaf roasted coffees. It's great coffee, smells sensational coming off the roaster or grinder and is certified to be 99.9% caffeine-free. Many roasters hate roasting decaf because it can be tricky - I absolutely love it (except for when it's time to pass through the de-stoner).
