Our current decaf offering is made up of a collection of lots from four smallholder farmers in Timbio, Colombia.
These farmers each hand-pick their coffees, and allow them to ferment for around 18 hours. After this, the coffees are dried for 10-14 days, and brought together where they continue their journey.
We are often asked about how is the caffeine removed from coffee, here is a simplified step by step process of the method that we use. It is a much more environmentally friendly method than some of the other methods that are used.
1. The green beans are soaked / cleaned in water, this allows the pores to open up as the beans expand and the caffeine to become mobile.
2. Pressured Carbon Dioxide is introduced, this combined with the present water creates sparkling water. The CO2 acts like a magnet to the caffeine molecules, extracting it from the beans.
3. The water is then drained into an evaporator which precipitates the caffeine rich carbon dioxide out of the water
4. This cycle is repeated until the caffeine level is low enough to be classified as decaf
5. The decaffeinated coffee is then gently dried until it reaches its original moisture content and is then ready for roasting.
You can read a bit more in detail about the process here.
