Our current decaf is a blend of washed
caturra ,
castillo and
colombia grown by a group of around 20 smallholder producers in the hills around Pitalito in the Huila region of Colombia. The coffee is hand-sorted and processed at each individual farm, before being sent to Descafecol in Manizales for decaffeination by way of the
Natural Sugar Cane EA Process.
This process involves placing the coffee in a solution of water and ethyl acetate, a naturally occurring compound derived through the fermentation of sugar cane. Aside from resulting in the tastiest decaf coffee we have tried to date, this process also has the best sustainability credentials in comparison to other decaffeination processes that we are aware of. The carbon footprint is kept to a minimum, with the solvent being derived from the domestic sugar cane industry, and the process occurs within Colombia (as opposed to Europe or North America), which also benefits the domestic economy.
In the cup the coffee is sweet and syrupy, with notes of milk-chocolate, honeycomb and baked apple.
