What is the best decaffeinated coffee in the UK?

Over here at Decadent Decaf Coffee Company, we try and be as impartial as we can about decaf coffee, so here is our guide to the best decaf coffee:

Decadent Decaf - let's get this out of the way - what do we think of as our best decaf coffee?

Well, coffee is very subjective and we all vary on how we like our coffee, so it's not easy and we love all our decafs - that's why we roast them...

Disclaimer aside, if you had to twist our arm to find out which decaf we rated as the best decaf, it would probably be the Swiss Water Decaf Indonesia Sumatra Mandheling.

The Sumatran is consistently great and powers through any coffee preparation from V60 to aeropress to espresso to cafetiere. We love it. It's the coffee we always use to convert those decaf coffee deniers...

And, for a second choice, it would probably be our Swiss Water Decaf Signature Espresso Blend  from Swiss Water Decaf.

Again, it's a very versatile coffee that's not only for Christmas or Espresso. Seriously, do try it as a V60 filter coffee. The cup taste really changes depending on how you brew the espresso blend. This is probably down the blend composition, which encompasses Papua New Guinea (lovely dark chocolate and body), Ethiopia (floral citrus) and Rwanda  (earthy sweetness).

But, what about the competition? Who else roasts the best decaf coffee?

The coffee world is competitive, but also friendly and almost comradely as we all share the vision to fight bad coffee and bad decaf, which is still the majority of coffees out there. We still have a mountain to climb.

So, here's a rundown of decaf coffee favourites in the UK (in no order of rank - just great decaf coffee):

i) Square Mile - Decaf Espresso Blend - lovely fully citrusy decaf for those who like the coffee on the light side of roasts.

ii) Illy - Decaf Decaffeine Blend - lots of people will disagree with this one, but Illy is a master of that classic traditional espresso, but in decaf form. Think bold, brash and silky decaf - short on depth, but reminiscent of having an espresso on the hoof in Italy.

iii) Coffee Compass Roasters - Guatemala Finca El Triangulo decaf single origin decaf coffee - comprising both caturra and bourbon arabica varietals, how to describe this decaf coffee? In short, fresh and fruity. Great with a V60.

iv) Grumpy Mule - Indonesia Sumatra - on a par with our decaf Sumatran, both great coffees to be honest. Like Decadent Decaf, the Swiss Water Decaf Indonesian coffee is the one we'd do the pepsi challenge with those naysayers...

v) Taylors of Harrogate - Decaffe Blend - To be honest, not a coffee we would drink with a huge amount of enthusiasm, but we must commend Taylors for expanding the reach of better quality decaf coffee into the supermarkets. Perfectly acceptable easy drinking decaf if taken with milk, but not exceptional decaf.

Finally, this article might be of interest from Batch Coffee about the best decaf coffee beans:

https://www.batchcoffee.co.uk/stories/best-decaf-coffee-beans