Galeras Decaf - Colombia - Espresso - EA Sugarcane washed Coffee

TASTE NOTES
Milk Chocolate, Honey, Dates

VARIETAL
Caturra, Colombia, Castillo

PROCESS
Washed EA Sugarcane

ALTITUDE
1850 MASL

The town of Buesaco lies high on a ridge in the Andes Mountains of the Nariño department in Colombia. The cooperative works with more than 300 smallholders farmers all over the Nariño department who generally harvest coffee all year around. Farmers are paid premiums on top of the market price these premiums incentivize high quality standards and good agricultural practices, like avoiding the usage of glyphosate and other chemicals. This lot of decaffeinated coffee in particular consists of small batches of beans from farms around the Galeras Volcano. This coffee was decaffeinated using the Ethyl Acetate (EA) decaffeination process.

Ethyl acetate is produced by esterification between ethyl alcohol, which is derived from the fermentation of sugar cane, and acetic acid. The green coffee is submerged in a wash of water and ethyl acetate, during which the ethyl acetate bonds with the caffeine in the coffee and begins to extract it from the green seeds. The EA solution is flushed and the process is repeated until reaching a minimum decaffeination level of 97%. Finally, the green coffee is steamed to remove any remaining ethyl acetate from the seeds.