D'CAF Is Now 99.9% Caffeine-Free
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In January, we published a report called The 0.5% Transparency Report. It was a detailed, honest account of where D'CAF stood at launch: 70% caffeine reduction. Good enough to drink in the evening. Not good enough to call decaf.
We closed that report with a promise: we would earn the 0.1% mark.
This is the story of how we did it.
The Number That Matters
Under FSSAI regulations, a product can only be labeled Decaffeinated Coffee when its caffeine content falls to 0.1% or below by dry weight.
Our lab results from the June 2026 batch: 0.1% caffeine by dry weight. 99.9% caffeine-free.
That translates to approximately 6–7mg of caffeine per cup — compared to 95–100mg in a standard cup of regular coffee. For context, a ripe banana contains around 0.1mg. A cup of D'CAF is now in that territory.
D'CAF is, officially, decaf.
What Changed
The short answer: we built the right supply chain.
When we launched, we explained in the 0.5% Report why full decaffeination was an infrastructure problem as much as a chemistry one. The supercritical CO₂ process can achieve 99.9% caffeine removal — but it requires running the extraction loop many more times to clear the final traces. That demands specialised heat exchangers and energy recycling systems that weren't available to us in India at scale in late 2025.
That infrastructure now exists in India. And D'CAF is built entirely on top of it.
D'CAF is Indian-origin coffee, decaffeinated in India. This matters beyond the chemistry.
Most decaf sold in India today is imported. The beans are processed abroad — at facilities in Germany, Colombia, Mexico or Canada — and then shipped in. That means import duties and international freight are baked into every bag's price before it reaches you. When you buy that decaf, more than half of what you're paying for is logistics and customs, not coffee.
D'CAF works differently. With Indian-origin green coffee, decaffeinated in India, the entire supply chain is domestic. When you pay for D'CAF, every rupee goes toward quality green coffee and precision decaffeination — nothing else.
Inside the Plant
Earlier this year, we visited the decaffeination facility to understand the process end-to-end. Since then, we've test decaffeinated almost 10 different varieties of green beans.
Walking through a supercritical CO₂ plant is a meditative experience. The space is quieter than you'd expect for a facility processing tonnes of coffee. The work happens at the molecular level — inside sealed extraction vessels, under precisely controlled pressure and temperature — so there are no visible reactions, no chemical smells, no dramatic moments. Just numbers on a panel, and faith in thermodynamics. The CO₂ parameters are tuned per origin based on initial moisture level, bean density and caffeine levels.
What This Means for You
If you've been drinking D'CAF since February, you already know the ritual holds up without caffeine. What changes now is the claim.
Earlier, "low caffeine" was the honest label for where we were. Now we can say: this is genuine decaf, certified to the Indian food safety standard, with less caffeine per cup than a few bites of dark chocolate.
D'CAF Origin and D'CAF Comfort are the same coffees you know. They are now 99.9% caffeine-free.
The ritual stays. The rush doesn't.
A Note on Transparency
We've kept the original 0.5% Report live and updated it with a note at the top pointing here. We won't pretend the first batch was something it wasn't. The honest starting point is part of the story — and we think it matters that an Indian brand was willing to publish its actual lab numbers at launch rather than making a claim it hadn't earned yet.
That's the standard we want to hold ourselves to as D'CAF grows.