KB News Desk
In a country where the average person drinks 416 cups of coffee a year, the fastest-growing order at the counter is the one without the caffeine kick.
Decaffeinated coffee, long dismissed as a fallback for pregnant women and the caffeine-sensitive, has emerged as one of the hottest growth categories in Korea’s cafe industry, powered by consumers who want a cup of coffee in the evening without a sleepless night.
The numbers show demand rising fast. Korea imported 5,387 tons of decaffeinated coffee beans in the first half of this year, up 21 percent from the same period last year, according to the Korea Customs Service. Annual imports crossed 10,000 tons for the first time last year to reach 10,040 tons, more than double the 4,755 tons recorded in 2021.
Caffeinated beans are moving in the opposite direction: after peaking at around 195,000 tons in 2022, imports have since declined, slipping to 184,600 tons last year.
Behind the shift is Koreans’ growing focus on health and wellness. Rather than giving up coffee altogether, consumers are choosing to cut back on certain ingredients, such as caffeine and sugar. Many now drink regular coffee in the morning and switch to decaf in the late afternoon or evening to reduce caffeine intake.
Cafe chains are racing to meet the demand. Ediya Coffee allows customers to switch any espresso-based drink to decaf beans, and recently extended the lineup beyond its stores with a stick coffee that blends decaf with roasted Italian barley and an online-only ready-to-drink decaf latte in cup form.
Decaf is also spilling beyond standard coffee menus. Twosome Place paired caffeine-free rooibos milk tea with a decaf espresso shot for its new milk tea line, while Compose Coffee released an ad campaign in April featuring BTS member V casting decaf as the drink connecting two students studying late into the night.
Better processing has helped decaf shed its reputation for flat flavor.
Producers have moved away from chemical solvents toward methods that strip caffeine using water or carbon dioxide, preserving the beans’ acidity and body to the point that many drinkers cannot tell the difference.
For instance, Starbucks removes 99.9 percent of caffeine using only supercritical carbon dioxide and steam to preserve the coffee’s flavor and aroma. The approach has paid off. It sold 45.5 million cups last year, up 39 percent from 2024, with customers in their 20s and 30s accounting for 60 percent of purchases. Its decaf americano climbed to third place among all drinks sold at the chain, and decaf’s share of americano sales roughly doubled from 6.6 percent in 2019 to 13 percent last year.
The boom is also drawing tighter rules. Current regulations let a product be labeled “decaf” if at least 90 percent of its caffeine has been removed — a looser bar than the international standard of 99 percent. That changes on Jan. 1, 2028, when the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s new standard will allow only coffee with residual caffeine of 0.1 percent or less by solid content to carry a “decaffeinated” label or claim to be made with decaf beans.
“The recent preference for decaf is an extension of the customization trend, in which consumers fine-tune the ingredients they consume to match their health condition and tastes. With interest in health and wellness higher than ever, caffeine has become as central to beverage choices as protein or sugar,” said Lee Eun-hee, a consumer science professor at Inha University.
