I have to agree with Clint. I started roasting my own greens simply because I couldn't get any quality roasted decaf beans anywhere. When I started roasting and finding sources for green decaf beans I was amazed at the quality difference from one distributor and another. I settled on Sweet Maria and have never gotten an inferior bean from them. Generally I have to grind finer for decaf to get the same or close to the same results for espresso. One nice thing about roasting SWD beans is there is no chaff. You do have to be real careful roasting decaf beans. It can get away from you very quickly towards the end.

silverdroid wrote:For giggles, if interested, this is what the bad decaf looked like:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/silverdro ... 424411789/

Ughh the contrast between the great videography and the... sub par shot makes my head spin.

I made that video for my roaster to prove to him how bad his decaf was. Check out my other shot videos, there's nicer ones.

Where did you get those glasses Silverdroid?

They were a gift, but I think they came from this store:
http://www.stokesstores.com/en/home-decor.html

hipporun wrote:Ughh the contrast between the great videography and the... sub par shot makes my head spin.

You may enjoy this one more. It's a little slow, but tasted out-of-this-world.

https://flic.kr/p/wsJQjJ

One thing to consider with decaf is doing a low caffeine (eg, half-caf) blend. Decaf as others have said generally lacks the brightness and acidity of regular coffee. So blend half decaf with half of a light roasted aromatic and acidic coffee (eg, Kenyan) and you can get results that are almost indistinguishable from a regular coffee. It won't have no caffeine but if you are just looking to reduce caffeine it can be a good alternative.

It will also pull shots better with a flow more like a regular coffee.