How Dekáf Coffee Roasters Turned the Specialty Coffee World Upside Down by Putting Decaf First

There are brands that announce themselves with noise. Then there are the ones that subvert the conversation quietly, until suddenly, they have everyone’s attention. Dekáf Coffee Roasters belongs firmly in the second camp. Based out of Salem, Massachusetts, run by just two people, and refusing to roast full-strength coffee, Dekáf has become a paradox the industry cannot ignore.

Caffeine has always been the bedrock of coffee culture. It has driven trends, rituals, identities. Coffee was the stimulant of choice for the modern worker, the creative, the parent, the student. To love coffee meant to love what it did to you. The rush, the wakefulness, the friction. So when Dekáf said they wanted to build a specialty coffee company without the stimulant at the center, the industry shrugged. Surely they were joking.

They were not. And now, the joke is on everyone else.

What Happens When You Remove the Assumption

Anil Mezini and Khanh Nguyen did not simply create another boutique brand. They dismantled a long-standing assumption: that coffee without caffeine must be a fallback. Their decision to eliminate full-caff entirely from their operations was not framed as moral or corrective. It was operational. They designed their business around intention, not compromise.

Their roasting setup alone tells the story. The Ghibli R15 handles decaf exclusively. The Loring Kestrel is reserved for low-caffeine profiles. A separate Ikawa Pro100 is used to dial in custom roast curves before any coffee reaches a customer. Every roast is done in-house. No white-labeling. No borrowed infrastructure. No hiding.

“We built this to show what’s possible when you take decaf seriously from day one,” says Anil. “Not as an option. As the foundation.”

The result is a company that makes specialty-grade coffee without playing to the industry’s assumptions. They offer over fifteen coffees across single origins, espresso roasts, blends, and cold brew formats. Each is labeled clearly with its caffeine level and roasting profile. Each is a counterpoint to the idea that decaf must be less.

Culture Moves Slowly, Until It Does Not

You do not change a food culture through slogans. You change it through the slow application of discipline, credibility, and craft. Dekáf never asked the industry to accept them. They simply started doing the work that others ignored.

Over time, their audience grew. First, it was the overlooked—the caffeine-sensitive, the pregnant, the anxious, the sleep-deprived. But then came the curious. The full-caf drinkers who still wanted something for the evening. The bartenders looking for a better espresso martini base. The customers who simply did not want to feel judged for choosing something different.

What Dekáf offered was not abstinence. It was a new lane. And it was a lane paved with rigor.

“We aren’t interested in being niche,” Khanh explains. “We’re interested in being excellent. If we do that, people will find us.”

They have. With customers across continents, increasing retail interest, and a reputation that now stretches far beyond their physical footprint, Dekáf has become something rare. A brand trusted by skeptics.

The Quiet Disruption

There is something deeply unfashionable about patience. Especially in an era of coffee brands pitching themselves as performance enhancers or digital lifestyle accessories. Dekáf instead leans into the slow: slow roasting, slow scaling, slow credibility. Every bag is still packed by the founders themselves. Every new format is tested across equipment before release. Nothing launches unless it matches or exceeds the quality of what came before it.

That approach feels less like a trend and more like a correction. In a marketplace full of exaggeration, Dekáf’s refusal to cut corners reads as both rebellion and relief.

There is irony here. A company built around decaf has become one of the clearest reminders of what makes coffee culture rich in the first place. Craft. Intention. Conversation. Community.

“Decaf is just coffee,” Anil says. “It should taste good. That should be enough.”

And perhaps that is what makes this story feel so startling. Dekáf did not try to change the industry through scale or disruption. They did it by removing the buzz and showing that the substance was always enough.