Seasonal Decaf Light Medium Roast

The Flavour Profile

A light-medium roast with warm notes of milk chocolate, caramel and hazelnut, with hints of dried apricot and a bright, clean finish. Fully washed and decaffeinated using the Ethyl Acetate (EA) process, also known as the sugar cane decaf or natural decaf method. Because ethyl acetate occurs naturally in fruits, this gentle process preserves the full quality of the green bean — the flavour, the structure, the integrity.

With a medium body, it’s bright, sweet and wonderfully clean in every cup.

Perfect for filter brewing methods — pour over, V60, Aeropress and cafetiere — this is a decaf that really shines as a morning or afternoon cup.

Single origin and roasted to order, this Colombian specialty coffee delivers clarity and sweetness, caffeine-free. And we can grind it for you too!

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Freshly roasted to order by Nick at our small family roastery in Canterbury.

 

The Little Details

This coffee comes from smallholder farms in Cauca, Nariño, Huila, Tolima and Coffee Axis in Colombia. this coffee is grown 1450 to 2100 metres above sea level, its fully washed  and Ethyl Acetate decaffeination process. It's drawn from Caturra, Colombia, Castillo and Catimor coffee beans.

About Coffee Decaffeination Process

This lot underwent the Ethyl Acetate decaffeination process also known as the Sugarcane Decaf or Natural Decaf Process. 

The special EA process preserves the high quality of the green beans, whilst successfully removing the caffeine content. Ethyl acetate occurs naturally in fruits, and this is why it is the best natural option for decaffeination. For this process, sugars from sugarcane are fermented to create ethyl alcohol. This is then mixed with acetic acid to create ethyl acetate. 

The EA decaffeination process begins with a pretreatment steaming the coffee beans at a low pressure to remove the silver skin, or the thin layer of skin on the coffee beans. The coffee beans are then moistened with hot water to swell and soften, to catalyze the hydrolysis (the chemical breakdown of a substance due to reaction with water) of the caffeine. Essentially, the caffeine is bonded to chlorogenic acid inside the coffee, and this process breaks them apart to remove the caffeine. The beans are then moved through an extractor, where they are repeatedly washed with the natural solvent, ethyl acetate. This occurs several times in order to remove 97% of the caffeine content within the coffee. 
Surprisingly, the weight of the coffee is reduced by 3%. The EA method gently extracts the caffeine from the coffee without using excessive heat that may damage the beans. Once this process is complete, a flow of low-pressure steam is passed over the beans to remove any remaining ethyl acetate, which will evaporate at 70°C once the coffee beans are roasted. Lastly, the coffee is vacuum-dried until the moisture content of the coffee is brought back to the original moisture level when it arrived at the EA processing facility – typically between 10-12%. Thus, completing the decaffeination process.