Intelligentsia’s new shop in Venice Beach is going to introduce some radical new concepts. Tucked way at the end of Food GPS’s latest report, Kyle casually alludes to the chance they may not be carrying decaffeinated coffee there. I’ve sort of fantasized about a bar that doesn’t offer decafs (at the very least, not prepared as espresso); and ever since Alex Switzer mentioned something about it to me back in 2007, I’ve suspected that Intelligentsia might be the first ones to try it.

James H. sums up the industry’s stance on the subject well at the beginning of an appropriately named post. It has been a necessity in catering to the requirements of a certain demographic, but an unfortunate one: decaf does not taste good. Even when one considers the exceptions (as interesting, sweet, well-balanced samples are occasionally reported), 99% of decaf is a pain to try and prepare to a standard.

The traditional nugget of wisdom has been that these pains must be suffered and overcome to the best of our ability because all decaf drinkers are consuming coffee for the taste, and not as a caffeine vehicle.

(To digress a bit, I’m not so sure this is true. At least in my little milieu , a lot of decaf seems to go towards one of two groups. One, older folks who have developed a coffee habit, but not being allowed the caffein in their diets, persist with decaf out of habit, not so much an appreciation of taste. Two, people who want the best of both worlds, where a request is usually included along with the phrases “sugar-free” and/or “non-fat”)

I now wonder how best to handle decaf. Will more and more third-wave shops move in this direction of eliminating it altogether? As much as I dislike working with decaf, I can’t escape the thought that it’s “giving up.” When one considers all of the research and implementation that would be required at each stage of growth, processing, storage, roasting, more storage and brewing it is practically reinventing what has been achieved in the last 50 years of specialty coffee.

So are we inclined to get rid of decaf because it really is intrinsically inferior, or are we just slightly afraid of what it will take to perfect?

Intelligntsia seems to be enjoying some deserved success in LA. Financially, it seems hard to believe they would suffer any by not serving decaf coffee. Theirs would certainly be an interesting experiment. The real test of this approach, however, will be the shop that caters to people who were introduced to specialty coffee through Starbucks and are just starting to branch out from dissatisfaction. An entire group used to complicated ordering as a replacement for individuality and receiving things their way, closed to the opportunity of new and better tastes. The ones who’ll walk out at the word “no.” But this is something of a different post..