With the chemicals, it depends on the decaffination process they use - it is a common misconception that all decaffinated coffe uses chemicals and is therefore bad for you. What you need to look for is that they use the "Swiss water decaffination method" - it will state on the coffee somewhere if they use this method. There are some very good organic, fair-trade, rainforest-friendly, swiss-water-decaffinated coffees out there that taste really good - for those in Sydney, I like Toby's Estate "Cascadia" which you can buy whole bean or ground to your liking. (sorry, I am a bit of a "coffee snob")