Can regular coffee drinkers notice the difference taste-wise? I’m the opposite of a coffee connoisseur and I drink any kind of brewed and instant coffee (including decaf) and can’t tell the difference.
Anon works in a restaurant
Submitted 9 months ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
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Comments
scytale@lemm.ee 9 months ago
bigoljim@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Side by side, trying one after the other. I can tell they taste different. But walking into a place blind, and only getting one. I think it might be hard to tell.
bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Side by side you’ll notice the little kick depending on strength. But you’d likely be full placebo none the wiser.
bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
Taste-wise? Probably not. But I’d know by 11am because the caffeine withdrawal would start and I’d get headaches.
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I’m a pretty avid coffee enjoyer, and I can’t tell the difference. The stuff that you can buy chemically decaffeinated are made by brands that generally sell lower quality coffee beans in the first place
thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
Good roasters also usually have a decaf roast on the go. You can taste the difference, but if you’re just getting some random restaurant’s drip coffee, you’d probably just assume a bunch of things are off about it anyway, so “it’s secretly decaf” wouldn’t necessarily rank very high.
Akasazh@feddit.nl 9 months ago
As someone who works in taste, people tend to overestimate their tasting abilities. Alcohol free beer, meatless snacks, etc. When presented without focusing attention to taste, people generally don’t notice.
If you give both options and are forward about it they will be 50% correct in discerning the ‘alternative’. Realization comes more clearly in the absence of physiological change (no inebriation, no caffeine effect).
However if people do find out you’re cheating them you can sell legit product all day, but people will still doubt you. So don’t expect long term business.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Alcohol free beer
Um, the smell alone is a dead giveaway, since alcohol has a very distinct smell.
RobertoOberto@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
As someone who works in taste
Is this an exotic way of saying that your a chef?
RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Only if you’re sensitive to caffeine.
My sister would feel the difference because her heart goes nuts if she has regular coffee. I wouldn’t since I’m an addict with high tolerance. Maybe the headache around noon would make me suspicious but probably not.
ipha@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Side by side I could pick out bad decaf, but I’d struggle to notice good decaf.
On its own I’d just assume I was given a bad to average cup of coffee, which is what I would expect anywhere but home.
doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Anon says it was a restaurant that happens to serve coffee; not a dedicated coffee shop. So, honestly, probably not. Chances are the coffee would be stale, burned, or just plain poorly brewed regardless of what beans were actually used.
A lot of whining is done about decaf, but it takes a pretty refined palate and a lot of experience consciously tasting the differences to be able to reliably tell the difference by taste alone.
The biggest giveaway is the near total lack of a caffeine buzz, even after several cups. But the placebo effect will go a long way to mitigate that.
Artyom@lemm.ee 9 months ago
At a cheap diner? You’d have a hard time telling cuz even when you use regular coffee, the caffeine content is pretty low.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Depends on the coffee.
I developed a sensitivity to caffeine, it basically throws me into a weird heart racing thing at any but the smallest doses.
But I freaking love coffee. So I buy decaf. If you shop around, find a few brands that do water process decaf, you’ll end up with something that’s good. Not just good enough, but good.
But the chemical process decaf, yeah, I can tell a difference blindfolded. Literally, I won a bet doing it.
The typical name brands, they usually have a fairly over processed taste to begin with. So it’s harder to detect, and I can’t tell the difference as clearly. It’s there, but you have to already have compared them before you can tell blind.
Thing is, part of that is how you drink coffee. If you’re drinking it out of habit, or on the go, your brain is going to filter the taste out in favor of other sensory input. You have to be drinking it for the coffee itself, paying attention to the experience.
Chemical process decaf has this layer of unpleasant metallic tang to me. Water process tastes like the same basic roast and bean, just slightly less intense. Things like floral notes get a little muted.
psud@aussie.zone 9 months ago
You don’t expect good coffee in restaurants, and it’s hard to tell between bad coffee and bad decaff
general_kitten@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
At least the ones i have tasted decaf espresso does taste more weak but might have been because my decaf beans were noticeably older and the freshness seems to be one of the biggest factors. If i took decaf coffee somewhere based on my knowledge i would likely just assume that it is old/low quality/not brewed strong enough before i would assume its decaf
pigup@lemmy.world 9 months ago
🌈🌞 that’s _illegal_🍨🌈
AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 9 months ago
Only if you’re caught
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 9 months ago
Just don’t say your coffee has caffeine in it!
Honestly, you could probably argue in court that given no one complained and caffeine has proven ill effects on health no harm was done.
pigup@lemmy.world 9 months ago
It’s a clear violation of FDA regulations. They say an item must be labeled as what it actually is. They even have official definitions for specific items. Decaf coffee is definitely recognized by the FDA and there are regulations that limit the amount of solvent residue that they use to remove the caffeine. See: www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/…/CFRSearch.cfm?fr…
It’s not the same product as coffee, and actually by giving people decaf, you are making people consume chemical residues that they did not sign up to consume. It’s illegal for serious reasons.
refalo@programming.dev 9 months ago
to even get that far to have to say that, they would first have to prove negligence by showing proof that you knew it was happening and did nothing to try to stop it.
Illuminostro@lemmy.world 9 months ago
[deleted]Psythik@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I don’t drink coffee, but shouldn’t that be the case everywhere, cause of the extra steps you have to take to remove the caffeine from the beans?
Wogi@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Also I’ve never been charged for a coffee refill.
Coffee is usually free after you buy the first cup.
tweeks@feddit.nl 9 months ago
I assume you live in the USA? In Europe most coffees are just singular items you order, with exceptions in buffets / sometimes hotels.
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 9 months ago
From my limited experience of drinking decaf, it usually tastes more watery. Probably wouldn’t visit that coffee shop again if their coffee was watery
doingthestuff@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I don’t think it was a coffee shop. Actually a lot of restaurants do this. Some people can’t have caffeine and they’d rather not risk accidentally serving them the wrong thing when they order decaf.
echodot@feddit.uk 9 months ago
I’m mostly fine with caffeine but if I drink those energy drinks I get really ill, it’s weird. I can down espressos wouldn’t have a problem, but there’s something in the energy drinks that make me ill.
festnt@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
ah the best financial strategy… lying!
Agent641@lemmy.world 9 months ago
My dad ran a similar business, he was an arborist. When requested to trim or fell a tree on private property, he would inform the owner that the species was protected by state law, and they would need to file an application for exemption. He helped them file it, and they paid him directly to fast track it. Unfortunately, so many of these applications were rejected, and dad could do nothing further to help the home owner, his hands were tied.
Dude didnt even own a chainsaw.
assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world 9 months ago
So fraud. The secret ingredient is fraud.
pjwestin@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I’ve never heard of a Café doing this, but I know a lot of wedding caterers will, especially toward the end of an event. It’s safer to have people who’ve been drinking just get tired and leave rather than get some caffeine in them and get a second wind. Plus, it’s easier to just brew one type of coffee, and while caffeine could be dangerous for someone with a heart condition, no one ever dropped dead from decaf.
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 9 months ago
count_dongulus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
But decaf is like…the same price or more because of additional manufacturing costs to remove the caffeine content from the beans.
RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
They still sold more of it, easily making up for the slightly higher cost.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 9 months ago
…who did?