Decaf
Our seasonal coffees each come with their own story, which is part of what makes them so special. Here we take a closer look at the story of the producers behind this coffee.
POCOS DE CALDAS
Poços de Caldas is home to a collection of coffee producers who have been growing coffee since 1860. Over time, producers learned how to grow coffee and efficiently maintain their farms. Quality became more of a consideration in the 1990s, and producers began to take more care during cultivation, harvesting, and processing.
THE FACTS
Varietals: Yellow Bourbon, Catuaí, Catucaí
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1,000 to 1,300m
Decaf Method: EA Decaffeination (see below)
HARVESTING & PROCESSING
In this area of Brazil, coffee is primarily naturally processed, roughly 80%. The remaining coffee is processed utilizing the Cereja Descascado method, or Honey process. This specific lot is comprised of only Natural coffees. Each farm contributing coffee to this lot processed their own coffee at their farms. This is typically done on a patio after the harvest.
Coffee is part of tradition here, and farmers typically harvest by hand. This is not too common in Brazil, as mechanised harvesting is more of the norm due to the flat landscapes.
Once the dried cherries reach their ideal moisture content, the producers deliver their coffee to Bourbon to be hulled, assessed and prepared for export.
EA Decaffeination
This lot underwent the Ethyl Acetate decaffeination process at the Coffein Compagnie in Bremen, 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.
sourcing coffee
Our Coffee Broker
For over ten years we have worked closely with Mercanta. They pay a fair price for coffee, empowering the growers they work with. Such is our faith in their commitment to supporting farmers that we now purchase 100% of our coffee through Mercanta.
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