Origin Story
This coffee was produced by 14 smallholder coffee producers from the region surrounding the small town of San Antonio, located within the municipality of Inzá in Cauca, Colombia.
The town of San Antonio has breathtaking views of Colombia’s highest volcano, Nevado del Huila, which sits at the point where the states of Huila, Tolima and Cauca meet. The rich, volcanic soil of the region is ideal for agriculture and contributes to the excellent cup quality of coffees grown and processed here. Farms in the area tend to be small – on average just one hectare – and either have their own micro-beneficio (wet mill) or share one with family or neighbours.
Coffee from Cauca has historically been very difficult to access due to the region’s isolation and instability. For many years this part of Colombia was under the control of Colombia’s notorious rebel group, the FARC, and as a result, it was unsafe and violent. Since 2012, safe access to this region has been possible as a result of peace talks between the national government and the rebels. Thanks to these efforts, more and more stunning coffees from small producers in the region have become accessible to international buyers.
The Decaffeination Process
Ethyl acetate, a natural component derived from fermented sugarcane, is used to decaffeinate coffees. The process begins when milled green coffee is placed in tanks and steamed to remove the silver skin. The tanks are then filled with hot water to soften and open up the seeds’ cell membranes, ‘loosening’ their caffeine compounds. An ethyl acetate solution is then introduced to the coffee and cycled through several times, with increasingly more caffeine bonding to the chemical compound the longer it is exposed.
The process aims to remove as much as 99.9% of the beans’ caffeine. Once this target is achieved, the coffee seeds are gently dehydrated in vacuum dryers, until the desired moisture content of 11% is reached. The slow nature of this process has one key benefit: the coffee’s cell structure is only marginally compromised and sugar is retained, meaning beans remain dense and roast similarly to their non-decaffeinated counterparts.
