COLOMBIAN DECAF
Origin: Colombia
Region: Huila
Farm: Smallholder farmers
Processing Method: Washed, Swiss Water Wash decaffeinated
Roasting Notes: Mild, sweet and citric with lemon and toffee flavor. At this time, we only roast the Colombian Decaf as a medium roast.
About the Farms:
These small holder farms have a great program dedicated to bringing the highest-quality, non-chemical-processed decaf coffees to market. This is a single-origin coffee selected by cup quality and grown by multiple smallholder producers. The Colombian decafs are cupped as regular green samples and specifically identified for decaffeination, which happens in-country in Colombia before the coffee goes to export. This allows both the integrity of the quality of the coffees and extends intentional and responsible sourcing.
The Swiss Water Process relies on caffeine solubility and osmosis to remove caffeine from green coffee beans. To begin the decaffeination process, green coffee beans are soaked in hot water to dissolve the caffeine.
After soaking, the water from the first round of green beans is passed through a charcoal filter. Caffeine is a large molecule and gets trapped in the filter while the sugars, oils and other chemical elements in coffee that impart flavor and aroma pass through and stay in the water to create what is called Green Coffee Extract. This green coffee extract-infused water is now used to soak the next batch of green beans. Since the Green Coffee Extract already contains the other elements of flavor, those substances won’t dissolve from the beans and just the caffeine is removed. It may sound complicated, but the result is decaffeinated coffee that is high on flavor and free from additional chemical solvents.