The following two decaffeination processes, both all natural, are used in Willoughby's decaffeination selections.

Mountain Water Decaffeination Process: The same method as described above except performed at the ultra-modern Descamex plant in Mexico. The trademarked brand name "Swiss Water Decaf" cannot be used. The Mountain Water Decaf process uses clear, pure water from the glaciers and highest mountain in Mexico. In the decaffeination process, the green coffee beans are immersed in water in order to extract the caffeine. The water constains the soluble components of the coffee beans which hold the elements of the individual coffee's flavor, so that during the extraction of the caffeine the beans maintain their original taste components. The resulting coffee is 99.9 caffeine free. Once decaffeination is finished the beans are dried and packed. We are finding the coffee decaffeinated in this ultra modern Mexican plant to be the purest and cleanest we have found. In addition, the process can be performed on relatively small lots of coffee - this means top quality coffees, rather than volume coffees - can be decaffeinated. Top coffees decaffeinated this way are a real break-through.

Swiss Water Decaffeination Process: The key element in the Swiss Water process is the creation of flavor-charged water. High quality green coffee beans are immersed in pure water, extracting both the coffee flavor solids and the caffeine from the beans. The beans are discarded and the caffeine is removed from the water using a carbon filter, leaving just water super-saturated with coffee flavor. Subsequent batches of green coffee are immersed in the flavor-charged water. Because the flavor components in the beans and in the water are equal, no flavor leaves the beans. Only the caffeine is allowed to leach from the beans into the water. The water is again passed through carbon filters, trapping and then removing the caffeine from the water. The water flows back to the beans to remove more caffeine. This process continues for about eight hours, until 99.9% of the caffeine is removed from the beans.