Abogados Café has the best decaf in town

My name is Inti and I’m sensitive to caffeine. You wouldn’t expect this from the co-owner of Abogados Café. But it’s true. I cannot process caffeine well. It makes me jittery, my mind gets foggy, I cannot operate, I get anxious, and cannot sleep at night. 

As you know, I am a lawyer. Legal work requires loads of concentration, multitasking, and deep work. It’s primarily all mind work and very little physical work. This distinction matters because when I am doing physical work caffeine comes in handy (as long as I stay hydrated). But my work day is destroyed if I have more than a few sips of espresso or a half cup of drip coffee. I can’t comfortably advocate on behalf of my clients under the effects of caffeine. My lawyering skills go out the window. 

I am a morning person. I wake up with an abundance of energy and can start working right out of bed if I want to. So I don’t really need a jolt of caffeine to get going–unless I had a few extra drinks the night before. Caffeine tends to create the opposite effect in me that it does in most people. And size matters. A cup of black tea affects me less than a double espresso. But I can still tell caffeine is in the mix, one way or another. 

I want to share with you how I got into decaf–really good decaf. I won’t explain the various ways to remove caffeine from coffee beans because there are already several explainers out there. I want to share with you my personal journey in finding the best decaf coffee recipe.

It all started in fall of 2018. My lovely wife Ofelia and I began exploring coffee shops throughout the Twin Cities. I have never been a coffee drinker, but Ofelia was new in town after we got married earlier that year. So I wanted her to get acquainted with the Minneapolis-St. Paul coffee scene. Saturday mornings we went to a different coffee shop and tried what our town has to offer. I mistakenly drank all the coffee I got. That’s a ton of caffeine for me–all for love. 

With time, I began ordering decaffeinated coffee. It was hideous. It either tasted like battery acid or motor oil. It was gross. It was disgusting. But I’d rather suffer through nasty flavor than through caffeine anxiety. “Is this as good as it gets?,” I thought to myself. I eventually began ordering hot chocolate or herbal tea to avoid coming in contact with caffeine or nasty decaf.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Ofelia and I bought a Breville Barista machine for our office at Ceiba Fôrte Law Firm. We began buying whole beans from numerous local roasters. I also began experimenting with decaf coffee beans. I wanted to taste a cup of solid coffee without the caffeine. That was my goal. My two favorite roasters were Bootstrap and True Stone. 

Bootstrap had a Chiapas light roast that was to die for. Fruity, caramelly, and smooth. I think they later changed their roasting recipe, so that was disappointing. True Stone’s decaf was darker than Bootstrap’s, but their cacao and hazelnut notes were on point. My decaf cup tasted like hot chocolate. It was decadent. However, I didn’t continue drinking it because I prefer lighter, jammier roasts. There’s more depth and nuance to them.

Up to 2021, Bootstrap and True Stone delivered the best decaf coffee in the Twin Cities for me. That’s when I tried Roastery 7’s decaf from Peru. Holy smokes. This roast was medium-light and combined stone fruit notes with woody & smoky flavors. I couldn’t drink decaf anywhere else anymore. It was the best decaf I had ever tasted in my life. It tasted like coffee.

So I experimented with Roastery 7’s decaf until I found the right recipe for Abogados Café. I won’t give you Abogados Café’s decaf coffee recipe because it’s a trade secret. But what I can tell you is that, generally, when making decaf coffee, less is more. Yes, less amount of coffee and less time. I found out decaf is very sensitive to contact time with hot water. So less amount of coffee in a shorter amount of time goes a very long way.

If you regularly use 17-20 grams of coffee for espresso, try 13-15 grams (with the proper filter basket, obviously). If you brew one scoop of coffee per cup, try ¾ scoop. Trust me. 

Time also matters. If you abide by the traditional guideline of 20-30 seconds to pull an espresso shot, try 16-24 seconds for espresso. Thank me later. 

These are two general rules of thumb but ones that have helped me enjoy coffee my way. They are not hard-set rules by any means because there are too many coffee variables out there. But my decaf now tastes like coffee! I want you to experience the same. You need to get back into drinking coffee again. 

My journey finding the right decaf roast and recipe is ongoing. If you find an amazing roaster anywhere, let me know. I will try it! If it’s really good, we might consider featuring it at Abogados Café.

Meanwhile, we claim that Abogados Café has the best decaf in town. Because it does. This is critical for me because I want to personally drink stellar coffee without the caffeine buzz, and because we want Abogados Café to be an oasis for all of us who are sensitive to caffeine. We need to take special care of our minds and bodies.

Come give us a try and let me know what you think!