How does this community feel about decaf? And are there any really good decaf options at your local roaster or roaster of choice? I’m personally a big fan of decaf for a dessert latte in the evening. Unfortunately I’m still trying to find a really good decaf bean, but this one is good for a really dark roast, which is my preference for espresso.
I like Hoffmann’s stance on decaf personally. His thought is the “death before decaf” folks aren’t really into coffee as much, because they’re admitting they’re just into it for the caffeine, and those who drink decaf are willing to drink often times bad coffee (since most places don’t treat decaf with the same respect as regular) just to have a cup of coffee since they love it so much.
Decaf is the only way I have a chance to have more than a single cup of coffee a day anymore. My body just can’t handle the caffeine anymore. I’ve even had to decrease the size of my single cup a day.
Good decaf is a struggle for me to find and when I have it’s carried a premium even over already pricey coffee.
I guess what I’m saying is I’d like to drink good decaf but I may just be too cheap to chase the good stuff.
Yeah, that’s totally fair. I wish it wasn’t so expensive. At least where I live, good regular beans are $22-29 without going to the super expensive stuff, for 300g. Meanwhile I can go to Costco and get a 1kg bag of Lavazza Oro for $28. It’s hard to justify getting specialty beans in a lot of cases. And then decaf is usually a few dollars more again. So yeah, I totally get what you mean.
The way I’ve been rationalizing it is that I’ve mostly cut out alcohol so I feel like I’m not spending any more money (I’m probably actually saving money), but it’s still an expensive hobby.