Page type: brand hub page. Target URL: /pages/extraction-method. Last reviewed 2026-04-23.

Every adaptogen in a CafeBank coffee blend — tongkat ali, maca, and guarana — is extracted using Supercritical CO2 (also called SFE, for supercritical fluid extraction). That is one of the first decisions we made as a brand, and it is one of the only technical specifications we insist on across every SKU. Here is what it means and why we bother.

What Supercritical CO2 extraction actually is

Most herbal extracts on the market are made with a liquid solvent — ethanol (grain alcohol), or in cheaper products hexane, a petroleum-derived industrial solvent. The solvent is poured over the ground plant material, the bioactive compounds dissolve into it, and then the solvent is evaporated off to leave a concentrated extract. It works. It is also imperfect: solvent residues can remain in the finished extract, and the solvent choice shapes which compounds end up in the bottle and which ones get left behind.

Supercritical CO2 extraction uses carbon dioxide — the same CO2 you exhale — pressurized past its critical point. In that state, CO2 behaves as both a liquid and a gas at once, which means it can dissolve plant oils and aromatic compounds like a solvent while diffusing through plant tissue like a gas. When the pressure is released at the end of the run, the CO2 simply evaporates back to the atmosphere. There is no residue to remove, no drying step to worry about, and no alcohol or petroleum trace in the finished extract.

Why CafeBank uses it

• No ethanol, no hexane. Supercritical CO2 is an inert process fluid — after depressurization it simply evaporates, leaving no solvent residue. Unlike ethanol or hexane extraction, SFE-processed extracts do not require post-processing solvent-removal steps to meet ICH Q3C Class 2 residual-solvent limits. Peer-reviewed 2024 reviews of supercritical CO2 extraction in medicinal-plant applications document this purity advantage and its downstream effect on extract standardization (Yıldırım et al., Plants, 2024).
• No ethanol or hexane in our extraction process. The single cleanest way to guarantee no ethanol, no hexane, and no trace chemical contamination in the final extract is to never introduce those solvents to the material in the first place.
• Terpene and bioactive preservation. Supercritical CO2 extraction typically operates in the 40–60°C range — gentler than the high-temperature distillation used in some botanical-extract processes, which can degrade heat-sensitive bioactives. That matters for both bioactivity and flavor.

How it compares to ethanol and hexane extraction

Ethanol is safe and widely used, but it is better at extracting water-and-alcohol-soluble compounds than lipophilic bioactives. For adaptogens like tongkat ali whose active compounds span both polarities, ethanol recovers the water-soluble fraction well and leaves part of the lipid-soluble fraction behind. Standardization helps, but the full native profile of the root is not what ends up in the capsule.

Hexane is the industrial solvent used for cooking-oil extraction and, in looser-regulation markets, still used for herbal extract production. It captures lipophilic compounds efficiently — but residue is the issue. International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) Q3C guidance, adopted by the US FDA and referenced by European EFSA, classifies hexane as a Class 2 residual solvent with a 290 ppm concentration limit in finished pharmaceutical and food products. A well-run hexane extraction meets that limit; a poorly-run one does not, and there is no way for a consumer to tell from the label. The limit is a residue ceiling, not a guarantee of zero residue.

Supercritical CO2 sidesteps the question entirely. No residue, no ceiling, no lab certificate-of-analysis to scrutinize for hexane parts-per-million.

What this means for you

If you are drinking a CafeBank 3-in-1 coffee, the adaptogens inside were extracted from their plant source without alcohol, without petroleum solvents, and without heat damage to the native aromatic profile. That translates to three things a customer actually notices:

• A cleaner extract composition that more closely resembles the whole-plant bioactive profile used in peer-reviewed clinical research on these herbs.
• No solvent-residue concerns — the class of contamination that food regulators monitor for in commodity supplements is structurally absent from an SFE process.
• Preserved aromatic profile, which shows up as a coffee blend that tastes like coffee with herbs rather than coffee with a supplement aftertaste. Flavor is not a safety argument, but it is the daily experience that keeps a 3-in-1 drinkable.

The trade-off we accept

Supercritical CO2 extraction equipment is expensive, the processing runs are slower than industrial solvent extraction, and the per-kilogram finished-extract cost is higher. We accept that cost because we would rather run a tighter, cleaner supply chain on fewer SKUs than a cheaper one on more.

Our lineup, extracted this way

Every herb in our three coffees is processed by Supercritical CO2 — the tongkat ali, maca, and guarana in Exclusive Blend VIP 3-in-1 (20g), the maca and guarana in Active Blend VIP 3-in-1 (10g), and the maca and guarana in VIP Coffee Tabs. When you read a CafeBank pillar article that references "SFE-extracted maca" or "SFE-extracted tongkat," that is what it means.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

References

1. Yıldırım M, Erşatır M, Poyraz S, Amangeldinova M, Kudrina NO, Terletskaya NV. (2024). Green Extraction of Plant Materials Using Supercritical CO2: Insights into Methods, Analysis, and Bioactivity. Plants (Basel). 13(16):2295. DOI: 10.3390/plants13162295. PMID: 39204731.
2. International Council for Harmonisation (ICH). Q3C(R9) — Guideline for Residual Solvents. Adopted by the US Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/q3cr9-impurities-guideline-residual-solvents
3. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Scientific opinion on hexane as a food extraction solvent. EU Directive 2009/32/EC on extraction solvents used in the production of foodstuffs. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en