A process of forming a treated clay composition, a process of decaffeination, and a treated clay composition are shown. The process of forming the treated clay composition includes providing a first solution of caffeine molecules and non-caffeine molecules, extracting the caffeine molecules to form a pretreatment solution, and bringing a clay composition into contact with the pretreatment solution to form the treated clay composition, on which at least one of the non-caffeine molecules is adsorbed. The process of decaffeination includes providing a solution of caffeine and non-caffeine molecules, and bringing the solution into contact with a treated clay composition. The treated clay composition includes organic molecules adsorbed on mineral layers of a clay. The organic molecules are non-caffeine molecules from a pretreatment solution.

Provided is a method of producing a purified chlorogenic acid-containing composition, including: a first step of dispersing or dissolving a raw material chlorogenic acid-containing composition in an aqueous solution of organic solvent; a second step of removing a precipitate from a dispersion or a solution obtained in the first step; and a third step of bringing a solution obtained in the second step into contact with activated carbon including activated carbon (A) having a pore volume of from 0.3 mL/g to 1.0 mL/g and activated carbon (B) having a pore volume larger than that of the activated carbon (A), in which a difference [(B)−(A)] in pore volume between the activated carbon (A) and the activated carbon (B) is from 0.1 mL/g to 1.5 mL/g.

The present invention provides a method for producing caffeine, wherein the method comprises: (a) combining a coffee extract comprising caffeine with an aqueous organic acid; (b) crystallizing the coffee extract and the aqueous organic acid so as to form caffeine-organic acid co-crystals in an aqueous phase; (c) separating the caffeine-organic acid co-crystals from the aqueous phase; and (d) extracting caffeine from the co-crystals obtained in step (c), wherein step (d) comprises placing the co-crystals in an aqueous solution so as to form a caffeine precipitate and a solution comprising the organic acid. Also provided is a method for producing a decaffeinated coffee extract comprising chlorogenic acids.

A system and method for reducing the amount of caffeine in an existing volume of brewed coffee. The brewed coffee contains a predetermined level of caffeine. To reduce the caffeine, a caffeine filter is provided. Furthermore, a coffee receptacle is provided to hold the decaffeinated coffee. A filter chamber is positioned over the coffee receptacle. The caffeine filter is placed in the filter chamber. Brewed coffee is dripped, poured, or otherwise advanced into the filter chamber. At least some of the brewed coffee flows through the caffeine filter and into the coffee receptacle. This reduces the level of caffeine of the filtered coffee entering the coffee receptacle. The system also enables a single source of brewed coffee to produce cups of both regular coffee and decaffeinated coffee, using only one type of regular ground coffee.

A process of forming a treated clay composition, a process of decaffeination, and a treated clay composition are disclosed. The process of forming the treated clay composition includes providing a first solution of caffeine molecules and non-caffeine molecules, extracting the caffeine molecules to form a pretreatment solution, and bringing a clay composition into contact with the pretreatment solution to form the treated clay composition, on which at least one of the non-caffeine molecules is adsorbed. The process of decaffeination includes providing a solution of caffeine and non-caffeine molecules, and bringing the solution into contact with a treated clay composition. The treated clay composition includes organic molecules adsorbed on mineral layers of a clay. The organic molecules are non-caffeine molecules from a pretreatment solution.

The invention relates to a caffeine-templated MIP copolymer matrix and devices employing these polymers that exhibit high absorbance or binding capacity for caffeine while retaining rapid caffeine uptake kinetics, and which function in both cold and hot aqueous environments to selectively remove caffeine from a beverage with a high selectivity factor in order to better preserve the sensory aspects of the decaffeinated beverage, and which can easily be used by a typical consumer to treat their beverage within a short time frame of less than about one minute. More specifically, the invention relates to copolymeric MIP matrices produced according to methods wherein the template to polymer ratio is dramatically increased in order to raise the affinity of the resulting MIP materials, and hyper-crosslinked MIP matrices produced using higher amounts of crosslinking agents to produce high affinity copolymer matrices that better maintain a high degree of selectivity towards caffeine while minimizing the uptake of congeners to better maintain the sensory characteristics of the decaffeinated beverages. The invention further relates to manual and mechanical devices employing the inventive MIP matrices in a variety of physical forms and configurations that enable a user to decaffeinate a beverage manually or automatically within one minute or less, or select a level of decaffeination by controlling the exposure time to said devices.

The present invention provides a method for producing caffeine, wherein the method comprises: (a) combining a coffee extract comprising caffeine with an aqueous organic acid; (b) crystallizing the coffee extract and the aqueous organic acid so as to form caffeine-organic acid co-crystals in an aqueous phase; (c) separating the caffeine-organic acid co-crystals from the aqueous phase; and (d) extracting caffeine from the co-crystals obtained in step (c), wherein step (d) comprises placing the co-crystals in an aqueous solution so as to form a caffeine precipitate and a solution comprising the organic acid. Also provided is a method for producing a decaffeinated coffee extract comprising chlorogenic acids.

A purine base adsorption material contains a 2:1 type layered clay mineral of [(E1m+a/mE2+b)(M1cM2d)(Si4-eAle)O10(OHfF2-f)] and/or its derivative, wherein m is a natural number of 2 to 4; parameters a, b, c, d, e, f satisfy inequalities: 0.2a+b<0.75, a0, 0b, 0c3, 0d2, 2c+d3, 0e<4, and 0f2; E1 is an element of Mg, Al, Si, Sc, Ca, Cr, Sr, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Zr or Ba, and turning into a polyvalent cation between layers; E2 is an element of Na, Li or K, and turning into a monovalent cation between layers; M1 is an element of Mg, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn or Li; M2 is an element of Al, Fe, Mn or Cr; and the M1 and M2 form an octahedral sheet.

A system and method for reducing the amount of caffeine in an existing volume of brewed coffee. The brewed coffee contains a predetermined level of caffeine. To reduce the caffeine, a caffeine filter is provided. Furthermore, a coffee receptacle is provided to hold the decaffeinated coffee. A filter chamber is positioned over the coffee receptacle. The caffeine filter is placed in the filter chamber. Brewed coffee is dripped, poured, or otherwise advanced into the filter chamber. At least some of the brewed coffee flows through the caffeine filter and into the coffee receptacle. This reduces the level of caffeine of the filtered coffee entering the coffee receptacle. The system also enables a single source of brewed coffee to produce cups of both regular coffee and decaffeinated coffee, using only one type of regular ground coffee.

The invention relates to a caffeine-templated MIP copolymer matrix and devices employing these polymers that exhibit high absorbance or binding capacity for caffeine while retaining rapid caffeine uptake kinetics, and which function in both cold and hot aqueous environments to selectively remove caffeine from a beverage with a high selectivity factor in order to better preserve the sensory aspects of the decaffeinated beverage, and which can easily be used by a typical consumer to treat their beverage within a short time frame of less than about one minute. More specifically, the invention relates to copolymeric MIP matrices produced according to methods wherein the template to polymer ratio is dramatically increased in order to raise the affinity of the resulting MIP materials, and hyper-crosslinked MIP matrices produced using higher amounts of crosslinking agents to produce high affinity copolymer matrices that better maintain a high degree of selectivity towards caffeine while minimizing the uptake of congeners to better maintain the sensory characteristics of the decaffeinated beverages. The invention further relates to manual and mechanical devices employing the inventive MIP matrices in a variety of physical forms and configurations that enable a user to decaffeinate a beverage manually or automatically within one minute or less, or select a level of decaffeination by controlling the exposure time to said devices.