ArticleMarket analysis
The Decaf Question: How Much of Australia's Specialty Coffee Is Decaf?
7.3%of products are decaf
Decaf used to be an afterthought — a dusty jar of instant on the back shelf. But the specialty decaf landscape is changing fast. New processing methods preserve flavour, and consumer demand is rising. We mined product data from 836 Australian roasters to answer a simple question: how much of the specialty market is actually decaf?
The size of the segment
Across 12,544 products in our database, we identified 915 decaf offerings — that's 7.3% of the total market. It's a niche, but it's a niche that every serious roaster is starting to take seriously.
Decaf
7.3%
Regular
92.7%
How decaf gets made
Not all decaf is created equal. The method used to remove caffeine has a profound effect on the final cup. Here are the four processes you'll encounter in Australian specialty coffee:
Swiss Water
Uses pure water and osmosis — no chemicals involved. The most common chemical-free method, developed in Switzerland and now processed primarily in Vancouver, Canada.
EA (Sugarcane Process)
Ethyl Acetate (EA), sometimes marketed as "Sugarcane Process", uses a naturally occurring compound found in fruit to dissolve caffeine. Popular with Colombian producers.
CO2
Supercritical carbon dioxide is forced through green beans at high pressure, selectively extracting caffeine while preserving flavour compounds. Precise but expensive.
Mountain Water
Similar to Swiss Water but processed in Mexico using glacial water from Pico de Orizaba. A newer entrant gaining traction in specialty circles.
Which methods Australian roasters use
Of the decaf beans where the processing method is recorded, here's the breakdown:
| Method | Beans | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Swiss Water | 106 | 26.4% |
| Mountain Water | 75 | 18.7% |
| Sugar Cane | 59 | 14.7% |
| decaffeinated | 36 | 9.0% |
| unknown | 27 | 6.7% |
| Ethyl Acetate | 14 | 3.5% |
| Sugarcane | 13 | 3.2% |
| Water Process | 10 | 2.5% |
| Water Processed | 9 | 2.2% |
| water washed | 4 | 1.0% |
| CO2 | 4 | 1.0% |
| Glacier Water | 4 | 1.0% |
| EA Process | 3 | 0.7% |
| water washed process | 2 | 0.5% |
| EA | 2 | 0.5% |
| water | 2 | 0.5% |
| Water | 2 | 0.5% |
| reduced caffeine | 2 | 0.5% |
| Organic Mountain Water | 1 | 0.2% |
| Sugarcane EA | 1 | 0.2% |
| Sugarcane EA Process | 1 | 0.2% |
| Sugar cane ethyl acetate | 1 | 0.2% |
| Sugarcane Ethyl Acetate | 1 | 0.2% |
| Sugar Cane, Mountain Water | 1 | 0.2% |
| Washed | 1 | 0.2% |
| Water process | 1 | 0.2% |
| Water processed | 1 | 0.2% |
| natural washed | 1 | 0.2% |
| 99% caffeine free | 1 | 0.2% |
| decaf | 1 | 0.2% |
| EA Decaffeinated | 1 | 0.2% |
| EA Sugarcane | 1 | 0.2% |
| Ethyl Acetate (Sugar Cane) | 1 | 0.2% |
| half-caffeinated | 1 | 0.2% |
| Mexican Water | 1 | 0.2% |
| Mountain Water Process | 1 | 0.2% |
| Mountain Water/Sugarcane | 1 | 0.2% |
| natural | 1 | 0.2% |
| Natural | 1 | 0.2% |
| Natural Ethyl Acetate | 1 | 0.2% |
| Naturally Low Caffeine | 1 | 0.2% |
| natural process | 1 | 0.2% |
| 50% decaf | 1 | 0.2% |
| Organic | 1 | 0.2% |
| Organic Decaffeination Process | 1 | 0.2% |
Who's doing decaf well
Some roasters treat decaf as a box to tick — one option and done. Others build a genuine decaf programme with multiple origins and methods. Here are the roasters offering the most decaf choices:
What this tells us
At 7.3% of total products, decaf is still a small corner of Australian specialty coffee. But it's growing. The roasters investing in Swiss Water and Sugarcane processes are proving that decaf doesn't have to mean flavourless — it just means the roaster cared enough to source properly.
For consumers, the takeaway is straightforward: if your local roaster only offers one decaf and can't tell you how it was processed, that tells you something about their priorities. The best decaf is intentional, not incidental.
Explore the roasters behind the data
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