Search for Lyons decaf coffee and the entire first page is product listings. No review, no comparison, no verdict. That is unusual for what is arguably the most widely distributed decaf coffee bag in UK retail, so this is the page that fills the gap.
The short version: Decaf Dreams is the cheapest mainstream decaf coffee bag on UK shelves at roughly 8p per cup, with a consumer rating of 4.1 out of 5. The basic product is fine. The one thing it does badly is tell you how the caffeine got removed.
What Lyons Decaf Coffee actually is
Lyons goes back to 1884 and Sir Joseph Lyons, the man behind the Corner Houses and the teashops that defined high street catering for most of the twentieth century. The coffee brand is now owned by UCC Coffee Group, the Japanese parent that runs the trade side under UCC and the retail side under UCC Coffee Direct. The current packaging arrived with a 2020 rebrand by Distil Studio.
Two decaf products sit in the range.
- Lyons Decaf Dreams Coffee Bags. 7g of ground coffee in an individually wrapped sachet. Industrially compostable, TIPA certified. Sold in 10s, 40s and a 150 bag bulk box.
- Lyons Gold Roast Decaffeinated Coffee Sticks. Freeze dried instant in single serve sticks, arabica and robusta blend, sold in 250 or 500 portion catering packs. Aimed at offices, not kitchens.
If you are reading this you almost certainly want the bags.
How Lyons decaf is made
Lyons does not say.
Every product listing for Decaf Dreams, on UCC Coffee Direct, the Lyons Coffee Bag Shop, Amazon UK, Ocado and the catering wholesalers, is silent on the decaffeination method. Kenco leads with “CO2 process”. Taylors of Harrogate calls out “Pure Water Process” on the Decaffé bag. Specialty roasters lead with Swiss Water or sugar cane because that is what buyers are paying extra for. When a brand at this price point declines to name its method, the safe interpretation is that the method is one of the cheaper solvent options rather than CO2 or Swiss Water. That is inference, not confirmed fact. If it matters to you, write to UCC and ask.
What Lyons does confirm: 100% ground coffee with no additives, suitable for vegetarians, Rainforest Alliance certified (confirmed on the Amazon UK description), and industrially compostable sachets. Fairtrade appears in some search results, but that refers to Lyons Tea, a separate Unilever brand. The coffee is not Fairtrade certified on the current product pages.
Caffeine content is not published. EU standards widely cite a 0.1% caffeine limit in roasted beans, which puts a cup of Decaf Dreams in a range typically cited as 2 to 15mg against 80 to 100mg in a standard cup. Effectively decaf.
What it tastes like
Lyons calls Decaf Dreams “smooth and mellow” and pitches it as an evening coffee. Consumer reviews agree. The phrase “not too strong” turns up repeatedly in the Ocado feedback, which is either a feature or a complaint depending on what you wanted. The obvious workaround if you find the standard brew underpowered: less water, longer steep.
Brewing is the usual coffee bag routine. Bag in mug, freshly boiled water, three to four minutes, remove without squeezing. The one practical flag from reviews is bag integrity. Several Amazon reviewers report the bag splitting at the bottom on removal, a known weakness across compostable coffee bag formats and worth knowing before you serve one to a guest.
If you want a decaf with the body of an espresso, this is not it. If you want a mild ground coffee that is faster than a cafetière and not as flat as instant, Decaf Dreams sits in the right part of the shelf.
Pack sizes, pricing and where to buy
| Format | Where | Typical price | Per bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 bag retail pack | Ocado | £3.20 | 8p |
| 40 bag retail pack (4 x 10) | UCC Coffee Direct | £11.86 | 30p |
| 150 bag bulk box | UCC Coffee Direct / Lyons Coffee Bag Shop | £26.49 to £32.29 | 18p to 22p |
The headline number is the 8p Ocado price.
A counterintuitive thing about the bulk box. At £26.49 for 150 bags it works out at 17.7p per bag, more than double the Ocado retail price. Bulk packs for this product are about convenience, not savings. Buy the bulk if you do not want to keep reordering. Buy the 40 pack at Ocado if you care about price per cup.
Amazon UK stocks both formats. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose carry the caffeinated Lyons Go Joe bags reliably but decaf availability is patchy on the shelf, so search the supermarket’s own site for “Lyons Decaf Dreams” before counting on a shop run.
How Lyons compares to other decaf coffee bags
| Brand | Format | Decaffeination method | Approx price per bag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lyons Decaf Dreams | 7g ground bag | Not disclosed | 8p (Ocado 40 pack) |
| Taylors Decaffé | 7.5g ground bag | Pure Water Process | 30p (30 pack) |
| Moreish Coffee Decaf | Ground bag | Swiss Water | Higher (specialty) |
| Kenco Decaff | Instant granules | CO2 (supercritical) | ~5p per cup |
Two things to read off that table. On price per cup, nothing in mainstream UK decaf coffee bags is close to Lyons. The next nearest in ground bag format costs roughly three times as much. On method transparency, Lyons is the outlier in the opposite direction. Taylors, Kenco and the specialty brands all tell you how the caffeine came out. Lyons does not.
For the full picture on CO2 decaffeination, Kenco’s article covers the process. For the water based alternative, the Swiss Water guide is the page to read next.
Is Lyons decaf coffee worth buying?
If you want cheap, mild, ground coffee that brews in under five minutes and you do not mind not knowing how it was decaffeinated, yes. Decaf Dreams is the most affordable ground coffee bag on UK shelves by a meaningful margin, the consumer rating is solid at 4.1 out of 5, and the basic product delivers what it promises.
If the decaffeination method matters to you, look elsewhere. Taylors Decaffé is the closest like for like format with a published decaffeination method (Pure Water Process) at roughly 30p per bag. For a Swiss Water option, the specialty roasters in the Decaffeinate directory are the place to start.
Browse all decaf coffees on Decaffeinate to see what else is worth a place in your cupboard.