Breaking news: our story
breaking news
Friday, June 5, 2026
Friday 06/26
Coffee had a curfew.
We orchestrated the perfect plan to steal it.
For centuries, one of the world’s great pleasures has come with a catch: caffeine decides when you can enjoy it. We hated that deal.
So we built HEIST with a simple mission: start with extraordinary coffee, determine the most effective, ethical, and pure way to steal the caffeine so that we'd never even know it was gone. Here's how it began...
The First Cup Was a Date Night
15 years ago, Stephen and Sarah Bruner were at dinner. Two glasses of wine in, a
shared dessert on the way. One of them
wanted coffee. The other didn’t want to
still be awake at 2 a.m.
The compromise was a pathetic decaf americano. That scene repeated itself in 47 cities across 15 years. Bad decaf was always the option. They thought they could do better. So they did.
They called the best in the business.
Jarrett Johnson spent 15 years
perfecting his craft, including a decade
building award-winning Lineage Coffee.
As a Certified Q Grader and one of the most respected cuppers in the industry, he knows what great coffee is supposed to taste like. They told him what they wanted to do. He didn’t laugh them out
of the room.
He’s now Heist’s Director of Coffee. And leads the sourcing and roasting process that ultimtately is what separates good from great coffee.
Why Decaf’s Been
Bad For 50 Years.
Decaf is 7-12% of coffee sales and roasters
know it. They treat it as an afterthought.
They pour all the craft into their full-caf side and pick decaf from a small set of pre graded options nobody got excited about. And it gets worse. If you want to decaffeinate a truly great coffee, the decaffeinator has massive minimums. Big ones. Most roasters will never sell that much decaf, so they don’t even try.
So we did the only thing that could solve it. We took a gamble to hit those high minumums, before we launched the business, accessing some of the finest coffee on earth. Coffees that have never been decaffeinated before. And after 18+ months exploring all the methods of decaffeination and even trying to create our own method with some of the top scientists in the world, we landed on the method we have full confidence in: the water method.
The whole point of Heist was delivering the best decaf you can get your hands on. That took real effort and taking a chance others haven't been willing to take on.
“Heist is decaffeinated with only water. The caffeine dissolves out.”
Most decaf in America is made with
Methylene Chloride or Ethyl Acetate.
Chemical solvents.
If a bag of decaf has ever smelled like nail polish remover, that’s ethyl acetate. And its often referred to as Sugar Cane Process, which is great marketing since its derived from sugar cane.
Both are below the legal limit by FDA standards. and deemed safe technically. We think “below
the legal limit” is the bare minimum, not the goal. We just wonder if we'll still be ok with this in 10 years?
Heist is decaffeinated with only water. The caffeine dissolves out while the delicious flavor stays.
Light Labs tests every batch for mold, mycotoxins, and caffeine content. If a lot doesn’t pass, it doesn’t ship. The full. process is on our
Process Page. The receipts are too.
“We stole the caffeine.
Not the flavor.
That’s the Heist.”
(14 reviews)
Coffee Without A Curfew.
smooth talker
Medium Roast
Dark chocolate, vanilla bean
(14 reviews)
blueprint
Light Roast
Cocoa, Citrus Zest, Peach
(14 reviews)
For those serious
about coffee.
Follow @DrinkHeist
