LALA SALAMA DECAF

This is one of the nicest decaf coffees we have tried and tastes just like a caramel chocolate digestive with a subtle fruit finish. We have roasted this a little lighter than usual for decaf to highlight the complexity and sweetness this coffee has to offer.

This coffee is sourced from the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU), a farmer-owned union based in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, where highland Arabica coffee is cultivated under favorable climatic conditions and long-established agricultural practices. Established in 1999, the union brings together numerous primary cooperatives and a wide network of smallholder farmers, coordinating cultivation, processing, quality control, and marketing in order to represent grower interests while supplying consistent, export-grade coffee to international buyers.

The coffee is typically shade-grown and managed using traditional agroforestry systems that support local biodiversity, protect soil structure, and maintain long-term fertility. As a cooperative organization, OCFCU reinvests part of its earnings into social and economic projects in coffee-growing communities, including education, healthcare, rural infrastructure, and farmer training in agronomy, processing, and quality improvement. This model allows buyers to engage directly with a supply chain that supports smallholder livelihoods while ensuring a stable high-quality offering.

Decaffeination is carried out using a sugar cane ethyl acetate process. Ethyl acetate is a compound that occurs naturally in coffee, sugar cane and many fruits, and is also used as a flavouring agent in food products. In this method, green coffee is first gently steamed to remove the silver skin and increase the bean’s moisture content, allowing the cell structure to open. The beans are then contacted repeatedly with a water–ethyl acetate solution, which selectively extracts caffeine while leaving the coffee’s aromatic and flavor precursors largely intact. Once the desired caffeine level has been removed, residual solvent is eliminated from the beans with steam and the coffee is dried back to its original moisture content, yielding decaffeinated green coffee that preserves the sensory character of the underlying origin.