"Why is the color orange associated with decaffeinated products? like
the color of the handles on coffee pots in restaurants."

Having worked in a cafeteria, I well recall my training in
"decaf-ology." The orange handle on the coffee carafe is a big help to
a busy server who wants to provide the proper brew to customers. The
origin of the orange is quite simple: it comes from the label design
used by Sanka, the brand name of America's first (and for many years
only) decaffeinated coffee.

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From an article in "Fortune" magazine, May 13, 2002:

It started in 1923 when Sanka, the first decaf coffee, hit the shelves
bearing a distinctive orange label. General Foods (now part of Kraft
Foods) bought Sanka in 1932, then created an instant version during
World War II coffee rationing. To promote the brand, the company
provided Sanka-orange coffeepots to coffee shops and restaurants
across America, says Bill Teller, a spokesman at Bunn-O-Matic, a
leading coffee-equipment maker.

"For years Sanka was a household word for decaf," says Ted Lingle,
executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. As
demand for the lighter brew grew, competitors developed decaf beans
for making fresh coffee. When marketing the Joe, the newcomers, says
Lingle, simply "followed Sanka's color scheme."

Fortune: GREAT QUESTIONS OF OUR AGE/Why Does Orange Signify Decaf?
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,366963,00.html

---------------------------------

From "Life in Specific":

When I got to work today, as every morning, I set my briefcase and
notebook PC down and picked up my coffee mug so that I could get my
second cup of coffee for the day. And today, for the second day in a
row, there was a fresh pot of coffee in the orange pot. Those of you
who drink coffee understand that "orange" is the color of Sanka. Sanka
= decaf.

Life in Specific: Coffee
http://users.ev1.net/~alarue/life/coffee.html

---------------------------------

Decaffeinated coffee was first invented in 1903 when a German coffee
importer, Ludwig Roselius, turned a batch of ruined coffee beans over
to researchers. Although not the first to remove caffeine, they
perfected the process of removing caffeine from the beans without
destroying any flavour. He marketed the coffee under the brand name
"Sanka" (a contraction of "sans caffeine"). Sanka was introduced into
the US in 1923.

Real Coffee: The History of Coffee
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/Article.asp?Cat=History&Page=5

---------------------------------

Sanka brand coffee (now part of the Maxwell House line) still uses a
variant of its famous orange label, as this recent image indicates:

http://www.mortalwombat.com/Image/Sanka.gif

My Google search strategy:

"orange" + "decaf" + "coffee"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=orange+decaf+coffee

Thanks for asking an interesting question that brought me memories of
my first job, as a coffee hostess in a cafeteria. If any of the links
do not function, or if anything I've said is unclear, please request
clarification, and I'll gladly offer further assistance.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud

My "opinion" is that the Sanka brand link is why orange is popular for
decaf coffe. In order to push the product, they offered restaurants
the orange pots so that their product would stand out and be
recognized by customers, as well as marking the different brew for
employees. A free pot, and a few bags of the new stuff would be a good
incentive to get a reluctant business owner to try it, and the orange
branding worked with their advertising to burn a definite image into
the consumers minds. It worked!

Just a note though, Green is also used occasionaly as the "decaf"
designator, as well as Red (though I've seen reddish regular coffee
pots too)