12 best decaf coffees for serious flavour without the buzz

When testing this coffee, everyone who tried it let out a “mmm” sound – even those who are coffee aficionados. Because of this huge seal of approval, I’ve singled it out as the best decaf coffee overall. The medium roast produces a mid-bodied coffee that’s perfect to drink at any time of day. Yet it doesn’t lack flavour, with a rich spiced chocolate taste. I reckon you’d be able to pass off this decaf coffee as the caffeinated stuff (on flavour, at least).

While it’s not about packaging, I also enjoyed Rave’s brightly coloured bags and the tasting note card that came with it. Rave offers whole bean or ground options.

Look, no judgement here. Sometimes you just need a quick coffee hit and can’t be doing with machines and scoops and water temperatures. For those occasions, good old M&S has come up trumps. This is a medium roast coffee, so it’s not going to blow you away with a rich, full body but neither is it going to be watery and light enough that you might as well have made tea.

The coffee is smooth. Is it going to set discerning palates alight? Probably not. But I found myself reaching for it as convenience over other instant decaf coffees. Another plus point is that it’s Fairtrade certified.

This small roastery in Kent only started out in 2019 but it has been making waves in the coffee world. Its decaf coffee is delicious. Made using the sugarcane method, there’s gentle sweetness to the flavour. As it’s a medium-dark roast coffee, there is a full flavour and aroma without too much bitterness. My group of taste testers noted it had a good “tang” and was rounded and smooth. I reckon this makes a great everyday coffee and find it the ideal replacement for the caffeinated stuff first thing in the morning.

This coffee is available as whole beans or ground for cafetiere, filter or espresso machines.

Ozone is a big name in high-end coffee. This is its decaf offering, which doesn’t compromise anything when it comes to flavour. It’s a very rich coffee, with a nutty molasses flavour that lingers, and it features quite a heavy body. This is absolutely one for those who deeply miss a huge coffee flavour hit.

While I found this coffee too much of a sucker punch first thing in the morning, it was perfect as an after-dinner coffee or in a decaf espresso Martini. With Ozone, you can select your grind to suit whatever device you use to make your coffee. It’s also heartening to see Ozone is a Certified B Corporation, meaning it’s looking out for the people who make its coffee, and the planet as a whole.

If you love your coffee and want to keep things interesting, Batch coffee offers a subscription service with a decaf option. This means you’ll get different decaf coffees sent to you from independent UK roasters. I got the hipster Stan coffee (Groundstated8.com) from Groundstate, which was set up by a scientist and a yogi, and buys rare lots of single-origin coffee. This particular bean is grown in an organic biosphere reserve in Mexico. It’s a really interesting coffee, with heady flavours of chocolate and raisins. I reckon this subscription would be a wonderful gift for an adventurous fan of decaf coffee.

With a dark-chocolate tang, this coffee had me wondering if it was definitely decaf. There is also a sharp plum-like acidity to it, which created a rich and interesting taste. It’s a mid-roast blend, designed to be taken black but it can take milk, too.

Grind’s coffees are sustainably sourced, come in compostable bags and with a free coffee tin. You can also subscribe to deliveries or order as a one-off, plus you can get the blends in coffee pods or as whole bean or ground options.

Perky Blenders is on a mission to showcase decaf as decent coffee. Its award-winning decaf is perfect for a less complex, sweeter coffee that pairs really well with milk. The medium roast also means it’s a bit thinner than some of the richer blends in this roundup. The tasting notes are of maple syrup and stewed apple – yum.

It’s worth noting that Perky Blinders switches up its blends from time to time, so you might not get the same bag twice. As well as whole bean, this bag of coffee can come as seven different grinds, to make your perfect cup.

Having scoured the land for an easy-to-make instant decaf coffee that still tastes great, this Nescafe hit the spot. This is the perfect gift for those who are pregnant or new mums, as it’s so easy to make when you’re in a rush.

The coffee comes as a powder rather than granules, which means you don’t get those nasty floaters, and the taste is excellent – full bodied without any bitterness. I’d advise not pouring boiling water directly over the powder but, apart from that, it makes for an easy, tasty decaf coffee.

I liked the gentle roast on this anytime blend from premium department store Fortnum & Mason. It’s a soft, chocolatey flavour that worked well in a delicious milky coffee during a 3pm slump. It comes in a cute tin, and is ground for cafetieres, filters and percolators – nothing fancier than that is required.

It feels like a lot of love and thought has gone into this medium-roast coffee. It’s nice to find that decaf isn’t just an afterthought for a brand, that they really want to make a decent decaf to be enjoyed rather than suffered. And they’ve succeeded with this fruity, bold coffee that felt like it had all of the body of coffee without the head rush from the caffeine. Real coffee-lovers who are cutting down their caffeine intake are going to love this one.

On the darker side of the roasting spectrum, this decaf manages to not tip over into bitter – perhaps thanks to the sugarcane decaffeination method the brand opts for. You definitely get a punch of coffee, though – full bodied with plenty of zing, its tasting notes include maple syrup, citrus and chocolate.

You can get the beans ground the way you want them at 200 Degrees coffee, which is good news for coffee nerds. And I was amazed by the value for money.

For those with a pod machine, these Nespresso ristretto decaf pods are a solid option. They’re a darker roast – Nepsresso rates them a 10 on their 1-13 scale of intensity. You definitely get a shot of coffee flavour with these little pods. During testing, some people reported that the taste could veer into being too bitter, but a splash of milk balanced it out perfectly for me.