What is Swiss Water decaf, and how much caffeine is left?

What is Swiss Water decaf, and how does the process work?

The Swiss Water Process takes the caffeine out of green coffee with water and carbon. This is how the company describes it, in its annual filing and on its own site:

• Make the extract. Green beans are soaked in fresh water until the water holds what dissolves out of them, caffeine included. The company calls it green coffee extract, makes it once and keeps refreshing it.
• Take the caffeine out of the extract. Activated carbon, which the company says adsorbs virtually nothing but caffeine, strips the extract.
• Soak the next beans in it. New green beans go into the caffeine-free extract. Because it already holds everything else the bean could lose, the company says only the caffeine moves out, until no more than 0.1% of caffeine remains in the beans.
• Dry the beans, clean the carbon. The beans go into dryers, and the carbon is regenerated so it can be used again. The company says its process does not currently allow the caffeine to be recaptured for resale.

By Swiss Water's 2025 filing, its decaffeination plant is in Delta, British Columbia, Canada: one facility of about 128,000 square feet that currently holds two production lines, built to take a maximum of four. The first line ran its first commercial coffee in September 2020 and the second has been fully operational since the third quarter of 2023. The plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company's process pages describe four steps, preparation and hydration, caffeine migration, drying, and filtering and renewing the extract, and say the whole process takes approximately 8 to 10 hours. 374375376

So is Swiss Water decaf made in Switzerland? Not by the company’s filing: both of its production lines are in Delta, British Columbia, in Metro Vancouver. The filing does not explain the name, so neither will I. The whole process takes 8–10 hours by the company’s process page, in a plant that runs around the clock.

Swiss Water decaf is made in Canada, and I am calm. Two labels doing a lot of work

How much caffeine is in Swiss Water decaf?

Two different numbers get called the answer. One is the company’s guarantee about the bean. The other is what ends up in the cup, which nobody we found has measured for Swiss Water decaf in particular.

Swiss Water guarantees that decaffeinated green (unroasted) coffee leaving its process is 99.9% caffeine free. The guarantee describes the bean before roasting, not the brewed cup. Its process page says the process removes 99.9% of the caffeine, a share of the caffeine the bean started with. 85375

Swiss Water's process page says the Swiss Water Process removes 99.9% of the caffeine. Its 2025 annual information form, a securities filing, describes the same target from the other side: green coffee is immersed in green coffee extract until there is no more than 0.1% of caffeine remaining in the coffee beans. Both describe the green, unroasted bean, not the brewed cup. 37537485

The process page says it plainly: the process removes 99.9% of the caffeine, a share of the caffeine the bean started with. The filing’s sentence, “no more than 0.1% of caffeine remaining in the coffee beans”, says the same thing from the other side. Read on its own, that sentence would also fit the looser ceiling German law sets for decaf, a share of the bean’s weight, but the company’s page says which one it means.

By our arithmetic, Swiss Water's stated 99.9% of the caffeine removed leaves at most 9 to 15 mg of caffeine per kg of green arabica beans that started at 0.9 to 1.5% caffeine by dry weight, that is 9,000 to 15,000 mg per kg. The filing's sentence on its own (no more than 0.1% of caffeine remaining in the beans) would also allow a share of the bean's weight, up to 1,000 mg per kg, the figure German law sets as the ceiling for decaf; the company's process page says it means a share of the caffeine. Both are ceilings on the green bean, not measurements, the sums ignore the weight a bean loses in the process, and none of it says what is in a cup. 3753745582

So the guarantee is a tight one on the bean. What it cannot do is tell you what is in your cup. A cup depends on how much coffee went in, the roast and the brew. Turning a bean guarantee into milligrams per mug would be inventing a number, and this page does not.

No study we found measured caffeine in a cup by decaf process, Swiss Water or any other, so the cup numbers here are for decaf in general. FDA puts a typical 8 fl oz cup at 2–15 mg. A 2006 lab study found 0–13.9 mg per 16 oz serving in ten decafs collected from different coffee establishments, and 3–15.8 mg per decaf espresso shot from one Starbucks. Starbucks lists 25 mg for a grande decaf. The full table, with regular coffee beside it, is in does decaf coffee have caffeine.

Swiss Water’s own page on the cup is worth a look, because it cites that same study.

Swiss Water's page on caffeine in decaf says a 2006 study from the University of Florida found caffeine in a cup of brewed decaf landed between 3 and 15 mg, depending on the size of the coffee and the method (a shot of espresso or 16 oz brewed). That study's abstract reports three ranges: 0 to 13.9 mg per 16 oz serving for ten decafs collected from different coffee establishments, and, from one Starbucks, 3.0 to 15.8 mg per decaf espresso shot and 12.0 to 13.4 mg per 16 oz brewed decaf. Swiss Water's 3 to 15 mg is closest to the espresso range with its top rounded down, and the page applies it to a cup of brewed decaf. 8563

The sentence is not invented. It is the espresso range, rounded, applied to a cup of brewed decaf. The study’s decafs from different establishments went as low as 0 mg, and its strongest shot went past the top of the company’s range, at 15.8 mg. Rounding a lab result toward neat is not a scandal. It is a reason to read the abstract.

The Starbucks name carries two numbers. Starbucks at Home, a site where Nestlé uses the Starbucks trademarks under license, says a typical decaf has about 2 mg. Starbucks’ own US menu lists 15 mg for its smallest decaf, a short of 8 fl oz. Different drinks, perhaps, but nobody reading “typical cup” would guess it.

Caffeine free to one decimal place is my favorite kind of free

Where does the 97% decaf rule come from?

The decaf article searched the US rules for it and found nothing. This time we found it on a page with a large brand on it.

Starbucks at Home, a site whose footer says Nestlé uses the Starbucks trademarks under license, says each of three decaf methods, Swiss Water among them, removes 97% or more of the caffeine from the beans, per the high standard put in place by FDA, and that a typical cup of decaf has about 2 mg of caffeine. The page names no rule. A full-text search of the US Code of Federal Regulations on November 10, 2026 found the word decaffeinated in 3 sections, none of which defines decaf or sets a share of caffeine to be removed. 37878

Counter Culture repeats the figure on its own decaf page, also with no source, and says in the same article that it has not tested the caffeine in its coffee. Not testing is honest. Repeating is how a rule gets invented. Where a law does write a number down, it is a ceiling on the coffee, not a share removed: at most 0.1% caffeine in German raw and roasted decaf, and 0.1% in Canada’s.

I don’t drink caffeine after noon. I drink a small, legally undefined amount of it

Is Swiss Water decaf chemical free, and is solvent decaf safe?

The company says its process uses only water and carbon, and that neither methylene chloride nor ethyl acetate touches it. By its own filing, its competitors in Germany, Mexico and Colombia use methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, carbon or water processes, and Peet’s says its decaf espresso capsules are decaffeinated with carbon dioxide. Here is what the law lets a solvent leave behind.

US regulation lets methylene chloride be used to extract caffeine from green coffee beans provided no more than 10 parts per million (0.001%) is left in decaffeinated roasted coffee or decaffeinated instant coffee. Ethyl acetate is permitted as a solvent for decaffeinating coffee and tea under good manufacturing practice, with no numeric residue limit. 7980

Health Canada's list of permitted extraction solvents sets the same residue limit for both decaf solvents in coffee: dichloromethane (methylene chloride) and ethyl acetate used on green coffee beans may leave no more than 10 ppm in decaffeinated roasted coffee and decaffeinated instant coffee. Ethyl acetate used on tea leaves may leave up to 50 ppm. Carbon dioxide used to decaffeinate green coffee is allowed under good manufacturing practice, with no number. 379

Two things stand out. Canada writes a number for ethyl acetate and the US does not. And 10 parts per million is 0.001% of the coffee: a ceiling on residue, not a measurement of anyone’s cup. Nothing in the sources behind this page measured solvent in a cup of decaf, so this page does not call solvent decaf unsafe, or safe beyond what the rules say.

Statements by Swiss Water's management in its 2025 filing, not independently checked: more than 60% of worldwide decaffeination capacity uses chemical methods, including methylene chloride and ethyl acetate; methylene chloride is prohibited for decaffeination in Japan and South Korea; and management believes the Swiss Water Process is one of only four third-party 100% chemical free water processes for coffee decaffeination. The company also says its process does not currently allow the caffeine to be recaptured for resale. 374377

Those are the company’s numbers about its own market, and a company that sells the alternative to solvents has a view on solvents. They are claims, and I print them as claims.

Is it healthier? The company says only the caffeine leaves the bean, and that its coffees keep more chlorogenic acids. The closest outside evidence we found is one 2006 study of water-decaffeinated arabica.

In a 2006 study of regular and water-decaffeinated arabica coffees, decaffeination raised total chlorogenic acids in the green coffee by 16% on average (dry matter), but after roasting the decaf held 3 to 9% less than regular coffee. The authors say the differences appear relatively small but may be enough to affect flavor and the biopharmacological properties of the final beverage, and call for further study. Only the abstract was read; it does not name the decaffeinator or state funding. 390

So the green beans gained about a sixth more, and the roasted coffee you actually drink held a little less than regular. The abstract does not name the decaffeinator, and no study we read compared Swiss Water with solvent decaf on health. Calling either one healthier would say more than the evidence does.

Is the FDA banning methylene chloride in decaf coffee?

Not as of November 12, 2026. A petition asks it to, and it has been open a long time.

On December 21, 2023, FDA filed a food additive petition (FAP 4A4839) from Environmental Defense Fund and others asking it to remove the approvals of four solvents, methylene chloride among them, including the section that lets methylene chloride decaffeinate coffee (21 CFR 173.255). Comments were due March 11, 2024, and FDA said it would publish its decision in the Federal Register. On May 28, 2026, FDA reopened comments for updated data, due June 29, 2026, and also asked what practical considerations food manufacturers would have in phasing out the uses if it granted the petition in part or in whole. On November 12, 2026 the Federal Register listed 2 documents in the docket and no decision, and the eCFR's version history, which begins on November 22, 2016, listed no change to 21 CFR 173.255. 380381382383

By our count of calendar days from the petition's filing on December 21, 2023: the filing notice came 21 days later (January 11, 2024), the first comments closed at day 81 (March 11, 2024), EPA's methylene chloride rule followed at day 139 (May 8, 2024), FDA reopened comments at day 889 (May 28, 2026) and they closed at day 921 (June 29, 2026). On November 12, 2026, day 1,057, no decision was published. 380381382384

By our count that is 1,057 days since the filing. The other ban you may have read about is real, but it is not about coffee.

EPA's 2024 rule restricting methylene chloride under the Toxic Substances Control Act applies only to chemical substances as that law defines them, and the law excludes food and food additives, as the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines them, when made, processed or distributed for use as such. Methylene chloride used to decaffeinate coffee is regulated by FDA as a food additive (21 CFR 173.255), not by that rule. 38479

So the 2024 EPA rule does not reach your decaf, and the US limit for methylene chloride in decaf coffee is still 10 parts per million. If FDA acts on the petition, this section changes, and the date at the top of the page says when we last looked.

The FDA has been thinking about my decaf longer than I have

Does Starbucks use Swiss Water decaf?

Starbucks at Home lists Swiss Water as one of three ways to make decaf and does not say which one Starbucks uses, and we did not find Starbucks saying so anywhere we read. Other brands do say, on their own pages.

In their own words, on November 12, 2026: Peet's says all its bagged decaf and pods are water processed, with Swiss Water one of several water-process partners, and its decaf espresso capsules are decaffeinated with carbon dioxide. Counter Culture uses Swiss Water for its year-round decaf, Slow Motion, and ethyl acetate for its single-origin decafs from Colombia. Stumptown says Trapper Creek Decaf is Swiss Water processed. Tim Hortons' Canadian shop says its decaf fine grind is Swiss Water processed. Verve says its Swiss Water decaf is 99.99% caffeine free, a higher figure than the 99.9% Swiss Water itself states. Starbucks at Home lists Swiss Water as one of three methods and does not say which Starbucks uses. 385386387388389378

How do you tell? Read the bag. “Water process” alone does not mean Swiss Water: Peet’s says its water-process partners include facilities in Germany and Mexico. And one for the collection: Verve calls its Swiss Water decaf 99.99% caffeine free, a higher figure than the 99.9% Swiss Water itself states. The roaster is more confident than the decaffeinator.

Swiss Water's 2025 filing says the Swiss Water Process and its decaffeination plant are certified organic by the Organic Crop Improvement Association Canada, and that its decaf carries Kosher certification. The certification named is for the process and the plant; the filing does not say every coffee decaffeinated there is organic. 374

For the regular side of all this, how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee has the chains and the labs, and the drinks page has every drink the instrument knows. The method page shows how the curve is built.