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In a nutshell, most decaffeination processes consist of soaking beans in water to dissolve the caffeine and then extracting the caffeine with either a solvent or carbon. This process is often repeated up to 12 times to obtain the most complete caffeine extraction. Some methods will actually use a coffee-flavored solution while soaking the beans to avoid a complete loss of flavor composition. Once the caffeine has been removed, the beans are then re-soaked in the decaffeinated water to reabsorb the flavor compounds that were lost in the initial extraction.They even explain what happens to the excess caffeine they take out: They sell it to soft drink companies. Good to know.