Yes, I know the four main methods of decaffeination. The haters have gone down this road with me many times. Why can't people just let me drink my decaf? It's like they can't enjoy their caffeine unless everybody does. It's weirdly pushy.
That said, I do think there is some truth that decaf is lacking (including via supercritical CO2) and I wonder how long until we could have a product like genetically engineered coffee plants that produce everything except caffeine. I'd like that, though I can immediately see an issue with growing a plant without its natural pesticide.
Do you reckon taking green coffee beans and roasting them til they’re brown right through has any detrimental effect on the biological compounds in the beans?
Isn’t it obvious? I mean within the same context where you wrote:
” is that decaffeination has the bad side effect of stripping flavors, and likely many of the other biologically active chemicals.”