Ground coffee · 4 min readDer-Franz Decaffeinated Coffee review
Decaf at 26p a cup, which is less than most caffeinated ground coffee costs. The price is remarkable. The label is not.
Decaffeination is an extra industrial process and it is normally paid for at the till, so a ground decaf landing at 26p a cup is the most interesting thing on this page. It is made from Colombian beans, roasted near Vienna, and sold as a kilo in two 500g packs. The grind is a general-purpose medium that suits a filter machine or a cafetière rather than an espresso machine. What Der-Franz do not tell you is how the caffeine came out, and their own listings cannot agree on whether there is robusta in the bag.
The cheapest decaf we track at 26p a cup, on a forgiving medium grind, with a label that leaves real questions unanswered.
- Tastes
- Rounded, medium roast, unfussy
- Strength
- Medium
- Best for
- Everyday filter decaf
- Valuecup price vs the format median
- 5/5
- Easy to likefrom the roast profile
- 4/5
- Good for beginnersblend, roast and pack size
- 4/5
Buy it ifYou drink decaf daily and have been paying a premium for it.
Skip it ifYou want to know how the caffeine was removed, because Der-Franz do not publish it.
Live prices, sizes and retailers for this coffee sit on its product page. This review is the analysis alongside it. See prices →
Decaf that does not cost decaf money
Taking the caffeine out of green coffee is a real process with real costs, and those costs almost always reach the shelf. Across every format we price, the decaf version of a coffee is usually dearer per cup than the caffeinated one. This lands at 26p, which is cheaper than most caffeinated ground coffee we track and a full 14p under the ground median. Whatever else is true about this bag, that is the fact that should decide it.
| Specification | What is published |
|---|---|
| Caffeine | Decaffeinated |
| Decaffeination method | Not published |
| Origin | Colombian beans |
| Bean mix | Disputed across listings, see below |
| Roast | Medium (3 of 5) |
| Roasted in | Near Vienna, Austria |
| Pack | 1kg, as two 500g packs, about 55 cups |
| Cost | £0.26 per 18g cup |
What the label does not settle
Two things, and both are the sort of detail a buyer might reasonably want. The first is the decaffeination method. Der-Franz describe the beans as gently decaffeinated and stop there. Water process, CO2 and solvent-based methods are all in commercial use, they are not equivalent, and for a lot of decaf drinkers the method is the whole reason they choose one bag over another. Nobody publishes it here, so nobody can tell you.
The second is the bean mix, and this one is worse because the answers contradict each other. Some listings for this exact product state a blend of 70% arabica and 30% robusta. Others sell it as a 100% arabica blend, and buyers repeat that back in their reviews. Those cannot both be right. Der-Franz do not settle it anywhere we could find, so the honest position is that the species mix for this coffee is unstated rather than known.
A contradiction between listings is not proof of anything except that nobody is checking. If the arabica question matters to you, read the ingredient panel on the pack itself rather than the page you bought it from.
What is consistent is the roastery. Der-Franz is roasted in the immediate vicinity of Vienna by a long-established Austrian roaster, which is a more specific provenance claim than most value ground coffee makes, and it is the one part of the story the brand tells the same way everywhere.
The grind, and which brewer to put it in
This is sold as a general-purpose ground coffee rather than cut for a named machine, and the reports back that up: a medium grind, gritty rather than powdery between the fingers. That is the forgiving end of the range. It has enough coarseness to survive immersion in a cafetière without turning the cup bitter, and enough fineness to give a filter machine a sensible drip rate.
| Brewer | How it goes |
|---|---|
| Filter machine | The natural home for this grind. |
| Cafetière | Works well. Slightly finer than ideal, so plunge slowly. |
| Moka pot | Passable, on the coarse side. Expect a lighter cup. |
| Espresso machine | No. Far too coarse, and it will gush. |
There is a second reason to keep this away from an espresso machine. Decaffeination changes how the bean behaves under pressure as well as how it tastes, and decaf espresso is fussy work even with a grinder and a fresh bag. A general-purpose pre-ground decaf is not the place to start that fight.
What buyers consistently report
- Value is the theme that dominates everything else, and it is the reason most repeat buyers give.
- Strength gets more praise than criticism, which is worth noting because thinness is the standard failure mode in cheap decaf.
- Taste opinion splits: a substantial group find it genuinely pleasant for a decaf, a smaller group find it weak.
- The packaging draws a recurring complaint. It arrives well sealed and there is no resealable closure, so decant it into a tin once it is open.
Taken together that is a reasonable picture of a competent everyday decaf rather than a remarkable one, sold at a price that makes competent look generous.
Who should skip it
Anyone who buys decaf on process. If you have decided you only drink water-process or CO2 decaf, this bag cannot satisfy you, because the method is simply not published and no amount of reading listings will produce it. Skip it too if the arabica question matters, for the same reason: the sourcing is not documented well enough to answer it.
And skip the kilo if you drink decaf rarely. Ground coffee stales quickly once air reaches it, decaf has less aromatic material to lose in the first place, and a kilo bought in March will be tired long before it is finished. Two 500g packs help. They do not solve it.
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