Ludwig Roselius Found Decaf Coffee

In 1903, German coffee merchant Ludwig Roselius accidentally discovered a path to decaf coffee after a shipment of coffee beans was soaked in seawater during transit. The beans lost much of their caffeine but kept enough flavor to suggest that caffeine could be removed before roasting. Roselius later developed a commercial decaffeination method that steamed coffee beans with acids or bases and then used benzene as a solvent. The discovery led to the first commercially successful decaffeinated coffee, later sold under brands such as Kaffee HAG and Sanka.

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