The first decaffeinated coffees were produced by extracting coffee beans with highly toxic organic solvents, including benzene and methylene chloride. You'd have to be forgiven for taking a pass on consuming such a beverage. Now, of course, safer means, such as extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide, are used, so brewing a cup of decaf using high quality beans totally makes sense when you want a good experience and don't want to risk the jitters. One thing I'll never understand, though, is decaffeinated instant coffee. Crappy coffee without the caffeine? Seems like a lose-lose proposition.
My intent was simple. Purchase some inexpensive instant coffee and make a batch of Caffenol in order to compare the results to those I got recently using mint developer. Turns out that in my rush to make it through the grocery store as rapidly as possible, I inadvertently grabbed decaf instead of caf. Bummer! Well, no actually, not a bummer. I reminded myself that the active developing agent in Caffenol is caffeic acid, not caffeine. So, I forged ahead with the mistakenly purchased decaf. Relax and trust the science, bruh. Indeed! The results were fine and dandy, similar to my previous work with regular, jittery Caffenol. To boot, I reduced the total amount of instant decaf in the universe by a small amount. Ha!
Rolleiflex SL66, 80mm lens, Catlabs X 80 film, De-caffenol for 11 min. Less staining, and more contrast than mint, that is for sure, but good results with both. Nice to have two eco-friendly options to choose from.
Hope you have a lovely weekend. Give Decaffenol a try if you are so inclined!
