Colombia, Decaf

Tasting Notes: Medium roast with distinct sugar crusted lemon and graham cracker notes. Country of Origin: Colombia Region: Huila Farm: Various smallholder farmers Altitude Grown: 1200–2000 Process: Decaf Variety: Castillo, Caturra, Colombia   This is our only offering of decaf, sourced from the Huila region in Colombia. The beans are processed on site, using a natural decaffeination process with fermented sugars and low pressure steaming. With quality in mind, this has been carefully processed and roasted to provide a decaf that rivals the taste of regular coffee. Expect more out of your cup with this flavorful medium roast. *Contains no more than 0.01–0.03% caffeine For more information on the decaffeination process, please refer to Cafe Imports' Sugarcane E.A. Decaf Process.  Ethyl acetate (E.A.) decaffeination is a natural process that maintains the integrity of green-coffee flavor. Ethyl acetate occurs naturally in many fruits, which is why this method is often referred to as natural decaffeination. This method requires a thorough steaming of the beans until they swell. An ethyl acetate aqueous solution is used to wash the swollen beans repeatedly. Ethyl acetate is a polar molecule, which makes it a good solvent for capturing the polar caffeine molecules from the coffee beans, since “like dissolves like.” The caffeine molecules bond to the ethyl acetate molecules and migrate through the cell membranes of cells of the beans. The Sugarcane E.A. Decaffeination Process removes a minimum of 97% of all caffeine originally present within green coffee. The residual amount of Ethyl Acetate equates to a maximum of 10 ppm (a ripe banana naturally contains about 200 ppm). Ethyl Acetate has an evaporation point of 70°C. As coffee is roasted at a temperature well above this threshold, roasted coffee will present no trace of E.A. *Source: Cafe Imports E.A. Decaf