Looking for the best decaf coffee in the UK? You’ve come to the right place!

So you’re a coffee connoisseur, a real Agent Cooper fixing for a cup of your next “damn fine!” delicious brew of the day.

However, for whatever pertinent reason you may have at that hypothetical moment, you’re solely seeking the comforting sensory pleasures of coffee’s taste, texture, and aroma, minus the inherent boost of a caffeine high that regular coffee would flood your system with.

At the same time, you know that inadvertently turning to a bad decaf option might spoil your taste buds, unnecessarily waste your funds, and rob you of the enjoyment you get out of brewing and consuming coffee in the first place.

Not to mention you don’t want to feel like a complete coffee philistine by just picking any old random decaf, lest you run afoul of something that tastes like the ghastly, cheaply churned out dreck you might find in a fast food place, or a hospital waiting room.

That’s why this list was compiled: to save you the time and trouble of trying to discern which decaffeinated coffees on the market are best suited to you, so that you can make the most informed decision possible.

Judged by such vital criteria as differences in pricing, varying brewing methods, average customer ratings/reviews, and most importantly, how good they taste, we hope this list shall prove beneficial in helping you find the most befitting decaf for your lifestyle. 

Best Decaf Coffee Overall: Spiller & Tait – Decaffeinated Coffee Beans

Delivered freshly sealed in bags packaged in sizes of either 250g or 1kg, these Fairtrade Arabica beans hail from Northern Peru. And they are roasted regularly in the UK in small batches to maintain a consistent level of freshness, taste, and aroma.

Their decaffeination process is chemical-free, achieving 99.9% caffeine removal through the “Sparkling Water” process, which is organically certified, and serves only to leave the beans full of their distinctive flavour, without any of the caffeine that would normally be present.

The taste is self-described as “bright and clean, with a delicate nut and chocolate notes finish”, its full-bodied, multi-faceted flavour belying its decaf nature. At a medium/dark Strength 4 roast, this coffee is suitable for any time of day, even on through into the evening.

A one-time purchase of a 1kg bag will cost under £25. With the Subscribe & Save option, however, you get a 5% saving if you choose to have recurring deliveries.

Meanwhile, on Spiller & Tait’s own website, you have a larger selection of choices optimisable for your preferences, including the ability to purchase the smaller 250g bag of decaf beans (at a cost of £9.50), different grind types to pick from depending on your brewing method, free deliveries on orders over £30, their own Subscribe & Save plan for 5% off each item, and an extra 10% off your whole first order when you join their site.

Pros:

• All the flavour of regular luxury coffee, without the caffeine.
• Great to drink at any time of day.
• Fairtrade sourced.
• Fresh roasted.
• No chemical extraction process.
• Versatile grinding options.
• 4.3 out of 5 star average rating by customers.

Cons:

• The pricing may be slightly prohibitive for some who don’t wish to go into the double-digits with the amount they spend on coffee alone.

Runner Up: Union – Decaffeinated Blend Coffee

Our honourable second place choice is Union’s hand-roasted decaf blend, available in both whole bean, and ground form.

Theirs is a decaf that similarly utilises Arabica beans, sourced through ethical and sustainable means, roasted in small batches for maximum freshness, and which also implements the chemical-free sparkling water caffeine extraction process previously mentioned with regards to Spiller & Tait.

Where Union differs is that their blend combines coffees from smallholder farms in Rwanda and Peru, and the taste of their dark-roast decaf concoction contains hints of ginger, walnut, treacle, and dark chocolate. 

A 200g bag of Union’s ground decaf blend costs just over £4 for a one-time purchase, or slightly cheaper with the Subscribe & Save option. Alternatively, a larger 1kg bag of Union’s decaffeinated whole beans is priced at just under £25 on both pricing tiers. 

Union’s website has slightly higher costs comparatively. Their 200g bag sells for £5.75, and their 1kg bag for £25.50. However, you do get multiple grind choices with each version and an order over £15 will snag you free UK standard delivery. Signing up to their mailing list will grant you a 10%-off code for your first order too.

Plus, Union has what they call their “CoffeeClub” subscription service; fashioned in a manner similar to HelloFresh’s subscription model. The CoffeeClub permits you to customise the coffee flavours and grinds you desire and at whatever delivery frequency you choose.

Pros:

• Great full-bodied flavour that’s rich and complex, yet still free from caffeine.
• Chemical-free decaffeination process.
• Ethical, sustainable coffee bean sourcing.
• Freshly hand-roasted.
• Multiple grind options.
• 4.4 out of 5 star average rating by customers.

Cons:

• Prices may still be a smidge too high for some households to merit the cost.

Great Decaf Coffee Beans: Coffee Masters

Another alternative we recommend for you whole-bean lovers out there is the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee blend by Coffee Masters, an independent UK coffee wholesaler company situated in the heart of Worcestershire. 

Made from 100% Arabica beans grown, hand-picked, sun-dried, and sourced from Central and Southern America, and which have undergone what CM refers to as the “Swiss Water” process (a gentle chemical-free caffeine extraction procedure essentially similar to the methods of both Spiller & Tait, and Union), this premium barista-quality coffee is a mild-to-medium roast blend, with minimal acidity, no bitterness, and tones of honey and dark chocolate in its flavour.

We’d recommend this blend to be best served as the espresso base to an Americano or Latte. But it would also work well when prepared with a coarser grind to produce a satisfying filter coffee.

A 1kg bag of these whole beans on Amazon is priced at just over £20 for a one-time purchase, or at a 10% reduction with Subscribe & Save. (Coffee Masters’ website sells the same bag for £19.99, not including the potential 10% discount that directly subscribing to their site would afford you for any and all orders you might place with them.)

Pros:

• The cheapest option for a 1kg bag of premium decaf coffee beans.
• No chemicals involved in the decaffeination process.
• Supporting an independent UK business.
• Great flavour.
• 8.6 out of 10 average rating by customers.

Cons:

• Not certified organic, nor Fairtrade.

Best Instant Decaf Coffee: Cafédirect Decaf Organic

If you’re on a bit of a time crunch, or you’re feeling a little lazy, and you just want to jump straight to the drinking of your coffee in as few steps as possible, while still having a high-quality taste that won’t make you regret having taken a brewing shortcut, then Cafédirect’s brand of instant decaf should be your go-to, in-a-jiffy choice.

Naturally made from our old friend the Arabica bean, sourced Fairtrade from Peru, and decaffeinated via the aforementioned CO2 method, this freeze-dried ground decaf delivers a quick and smooth coffee experience. It sacrifices none of the full-bodied flavoursome taste, nor the freshness and quality of any its predecessors on this list.

On Amazon, you can get a 500g tin of their organic decaf for under £20. Alternatively you can get a pack of 250 single-use coffee sticks for under £35.

Pros:

• Simple, quick alternative to other brewing methods, without losing richness of flavour. 
• Chemical-free decaffeination process.
• Fairtrade sourced.
• 4.7 out of 5 star average customer rating on Amazon.

Cons:

• No Subscribe & Save option.

Best Ground Decaf Coffee: Brown Bear – Cool Brazil

For those partial to a coffee of the filter and/or French press persuasion, you’d be hard-pressed (pun intended) to find a better ground variety than Brown Bear’s Cool Brazil decaf blend. 

Using the same “Swiss water method” as the other coffee predecessors herein for extracting the caffeine from the original beans, these come in a Strength 3 medium roast that’s smooth with a subtle acidity. You can also expect flavours of dark cocoa and walnut. Each cup has a clean, refreshing finish awaiting you.

The proverbial cherry on top of this great-tasting anytime-coffee is the knowledge that a purchase of any Brown Bear products leads to 5% of the sales being donated to the charity, Free The Bears UK, whose ethos since their formation in 1995 is to rescue, and provide sanctuary, to vulnerable bears in South East Asia, where these creatures have long been subject to caged commodification in so-called “bile farms”.

Free The Bears thusly works to keep bears safe from the harm these farms would seek to inflict on them. They also dig down into addressing the root cause of the pervading societal and cultural attitudes that once allowed this practice to go on unabolished, doing so in order to build to the day when the bears of the region are permitted complete freedom, and peace. To date, Free The Bears have rescued over 950 bears, and built multiple sanctuaries across Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Pros:

• A quicker option for brewing than grinding whole beans yourself.
• Excellent, rich flavour profile.
• Chemical-free decaffeination process.
• Reasonably affordable.
• 4.4 out of 5 star average customer rating on Amazon.
• Every bag bought goes towards benefitting a worthy charitable cause.

Cons:

• Once a bag is opened, you only have a two week timespan to consume it all. The freshness and taste starts diminishing after this.

Best Decaf Coffee Pods: TASSIMO Kenco – Americano Pods

For those with their own personal coffee machines looking to get in on this decaf action, your best bet lies with TASSIMO Kenco’s decaf Americano pods.

Each single-serve T-disc capsule creates a cup of coffee-shop quality decaf, made from roast and ground coffee beans – (no word on if that prolific Swiss Water decaffeination method is involved somewhere along the line here) – that altogether conjure up a potent cup of creamy, intense, yet well-balanced and full-bodied coffee that can be enjoyed at any time of your choosing.

An individual pack of 16 pods costs £3.99 on TASSIMO’s website, which is about the same pricing you’d get for it in most supermarkets.

On Amazon, you can also buy a bumper five-pack of the pods – which equates to 80 drinks in total – for just over the price of 4 coffee shop coffees, or at a 10% reduction with the Subscribe & Save option.

Pros:

• Widely available, both online, and in stores.
• If you have a TASSIMO machine, making a cup is a doddle.
• A strong dark flavour undiminished by its decaffeination.
• Decently affordable.
• 4.8 out of 5 star average customer rating.

Cons:

• The negative environmental impact of the amount of plastic that goes into producing, and disposing of, the pods.

Best Supermarket Decaf Coffee: Nescafé Gold

Last but not least, we have the not-at-all ignoble inclusion of Nescafé’s Gold Blend Instant Decaf, whose widespread availability doesn’t mean it’s in any way less worthy of going toe-to-toe with the other coffees on this list. 

It’s a soluble, instant blend of Arabica and Robusta whole beans, sustainably sourced from countries including Colombia, Brazil, and Indonesia. They are non-chemically decaffeinated purely with water then medium roasted. Finally, they are ground ten times finer, to create a decaf that’s smooth-tasting, and rich with exultant aroma.

A regular 200g jar of Decaf Gold Blend is consistently priced under £5. This is true across both supermarkets, and online retailers. But if you’re in preference of a larger amount, Amazon’s got you covered with the Nescafé Gold 500g tin. The larger tin works out slightly cheaper per gram too. 

Pros:

• Widely available throughout supermarkets, and online grocery retailers.
• Decently affordable.
• Sustainably sourced whole bean origins.
• Chemical-free decaffeination process.
• Easy to brew every cup.
• 4.5 out of 5 star average customer rating.

Cons:

• The flavour is somewhat weaker than other decafs. This is more of a subjective perspective that likely varies from person to person, depending on their own personal tastes.

Summary

If you love the taste of coffee but want to avoid the caffeine rush, buying the best decaf coffee will go a long way. We’ve tried to list coffees for different brewing methods so hopefully you’ve already found the best choice for you having read this article. If not, feel free to get in touch with us to discuss more and we’ll do our best to help!