Do coffee shops always give you decaf when you order it?

[Anonymous]

I switched to decaf this year because regular coffee makes me anxious. Hands shake when I drink it. I have been buying myself a decaf drink at the same coffee shop a few times a week this summer and notice some days my body is reacting to the drink as if it contained regular coffee and not decaf. Do you thin baristas sometimes forget to use decaf beans?

[Anonymous]

Yes of course

[Anonymous]

My guess is it’s hit or miss

[Anonymous]

Yes, they give you regular coffee sometimes, for various reasons.

[Anonymous]

Some types of coffee (dark verse house blend verse light) are more decaffeinated than others .

You can't 100% remove all caffeine from coffee so maybe you're reacting to the residual. And sometimes coffee is more watered down than other times

[Anonymous]

they sure do!

[Anonymous]

When they tested decaf coffee, it ended up being 50% to 10% caffeinated. Starbucks was the worst.

[Anonymous]

No, they don't always give you decaf. I order tea now instead.

[Anonymous]

Definitely hit or miss. I don’t drink caffeine at all due to anxiety. My standard order is a decaf Americano because I think they’re less likely to mess up if they have to make the drink fresh anyway.

[Anonymous]

If you were making $2.50 a hour would you be eager to brew a fresh batch of decaf for the one difficult customer who requests it per shift?

[Anonymous]

Op here. I order decaf Americanos. So yeah I guess I do expect it to be decaf for the $6 I am paying for water and coffee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Do you thin baristas sometimes forget to use decaf beans?

Yes it's possible LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is it’s hit or miss

This. They forget .

[Anonymous]

I don't order coffee drinks often but when I do it's always decaf and I always get decaf. That being said, I find that my body reacts like it's normal coffee for like 45 minutes? And then I'm fine again. I think it's because the immediate effect of the coffee is psychosomatic -- taste of coffee leads to hyper alertness and shaky hands as the brain preps for the caffeine rush to come. Then when the caffeine rush doesn't come, everything calms down. (I know I got decaf because I'm not up until 2AM jittering after these experiences.)

[Anonymous]

I managed a coffee shop for years and one thing I drove into barista's was to always double check that you make a decaf order decaf. There are too many health issues and medications that can be affected by caffeine. That doesn't mean a mistake has never happened though. For you, I would recommend confirming it is decaf when you pick up the cup. Most people are honest enough to remake it if they realize they made a mistake.

I think a lot of people also don't realize how much caffeine is actually in a lot of decaf brews and espresso beans too. For someone especially sensitive, I wouldn't even recommend ordering decaf unless you can check how many milligrams of caffeine it actually contains.