Why I built this
I went looking for a complete, honest guide to specialty decaf coffee in the UK and couldn't find one. The "top 10" lists were thin and out of date. The supermarket sites only covered their own range. The roasters' own sites are funnels for their own products. So I started building decaffeinate as the resource I wished existed.
The aim is straightforward. Find every specialty decaf coffee available to UK buyers. Classify it honestly. Write a real description of each one. Keep the data current. Don't take payment from roasters to be listed. Be transparent about how the site is funded and how the editorial works.
What I'm qualified to do
Read carefully. Research thoroughly. Classify what's declared. Write plainly. Tell you what makes one decaf coffee distinct from another without dressing it up.
What I'm not qualified to do
Tell you what a coffee tastes like in a professional sense. I'm not a Q grader. I haven't trained in cupping. I don't have a barista certification. The descriptions on decaffeinate are not tasting reviews. They are about what the coffee is: origin, decaf method, processing, roaster context, what's notable about it.
Where a coffee carries sensory notes, those notes come from the roaster's own product page and are attributed to them. The directory is the map, not the tasting room.
"decaffeinate is the directory I couldn't find, written by someone who isn't pretending to be the expert."
How I write about coffees
For each coffee on the site, I read the roaster's full product page, note the origin, method, processing, and any sensory notes the roaster declares, and write a short description in plain language. The full process is on the methodology page.
I don't copy marketing copy. I don't generate descriptions from a template. I write each one as if I were describing the coffee to a friend who asked.
Conflicts of interest
None on the editorial side. I don't own, work for, advise, or take payment from any UK coffee roaster, supermarket coffee brand, or decaf supplier. I don't have a stake in any of them. If that ever changes for a specific business, the connection will be declared on the relevant page and that business will be excluded from any "best of" feature.
The site is currently funded by my own time. Affiliate revenue, if and when we add affiliate partners, will fund the time spent on decaffeinate; it will never decide what I write. The full picture is on the affiliate disclosure page.
Other work
I run separate ventures that have nothing to do with coffee or this site. They are not linked from here on purpose. decaffeinate is its own thing, written under my own name, and I want the editorial to stand on what is on this site rather than be inherited from anywhere else.
Reaching me
Editorial questions, corrections, suggestions, complaints, or anything else go to [email protected]. I read everything that lands there.
If you're a UK roaster who'd like to update a coffee listing or correct something we have written, please email from a domain we can match to your business. It speeds things up.