Decaffeination of green coffee - by aq. extraction, drying, and extraction with organic liquid

Green coffee is decaffeinated by extracting the coffee with an aq. liquid, drying the liq. and extracting the dried solids with a liq. organic solvent. Pref. solvents are methyl, ethyl and propyl alcohols. After sepn., the solvent may be processed to recover noncaffein solids which are then combined with the dried coffee solubles (e.g., by cooling to ppte. coffee solubles and then extracting with a solvent for caffeine). The solvent and caffeine extractant may be the same. The aq. liquid may be (a) water and the decaffeinated dried dolids are reconstituted with water and adsorbed on water extracted green coffee or (b) a caffeine deficient soln. of green coffee solubles and the decaffeinated dried solids are reconstituted with water and the resulting soln. is used to extract caffeine from green coffee. Eliminates the need for the use of halogenated solvents. The aq. soln. is dried, allowing the use of water-miscib-solvents.