Risaralda IMH EA Decaf

Our latest decaf coffee and we're heading back to Risaralda in Colombia for a Sugarcane EA method sourced by Raw Material from a women's producer group IMH.

IMH stands for 'Igualdad Mujeres Hombres' meaning 'Equality Women and Men' and is a women’s group who are committed to learning all that entails to produce high-quality specialty coffee. The group are focussed on processing techniques, from picking to drying, with the goal of improving flavour for sale into the specialty market. Igualdad Mujeres Hombres hosts workshops and exchanges between both male and female coffee producers. The goal is to enhance productivity in the long term, encouraging respectful dynamics between men and women in these rural areas of Colombia.

Their farms are located near the Tatama national park in the north-west of Risaralda, which provides a unique micro-climate for high-quality coffee production. Producers in the association are able to access the specialty supply chain, whilst simultaneously creating a respectful environment for women coffee producers.

Each farm produces its own levels of volume and types of varieties, and the main varieties grown are Castillo, Caturra, and Supremo. Most of the members of the association process their coffees using traditional washed processing practices; 16 hours fermentation followed by sun-drying for 15 days.

The Sugar Cane EA Decaffeination method

Sugar cane decaffeination is often termed as a natural process decaf. Ethyl Acetate is an organically existing compound (C4H8O2) and by-product found most commonly in the fermentation of fruits, and is present in both ripe bananas and beer for example.

The plant Raw Material work with in Colombia uses water from the Navado del Ruis (a volcano between Caldas and Tolima) and natural ethyl acetate from fermented sugarcane sourced in the southern region of Palmira, Colombia. This process begins with steaming of the coffee, increasing its porosity, beginning the hydrolysis of caffeine, which is usually bonded to salts and chlorogenic acids in the bean.

The beans are then submerged in an ethyl acetate solution until 97% of the caffeine is removed. A final steam is then used to lift residual traces of the compound. The ultimate residue which remains is ≤30 ppm, which is a level dramatically less than that of a banana!

Raw Material have created a nice info graphic of the process here.