Description
Producer |
Multiple Producers |
Region |
Caldas |
Variety |
Castillo Naranjal, Colombia |
Altitude |
1800 MASL |
Process
|
Natural Sugarcane Decaf |
Flavour |
Red Grape, Sugar Cane, Sweet & Juicy |
Importer |
Raw Material |
We had a lot of requests for decaf over the last couple of years, but it took a WHILE to find one that we actually would want to drink! Thankfully, Raw Material came through once again.
This year's Decaf is a natural process coffee from Villamaria in the Caldas region of Colombia and is juicier, cleaner and sweeter than last year's decaf from Risaralda! We're super happy to have it on offer from now on!
Sugarcane Decaf is a relatively new decaffeination process, here's the lo-down from Raw Material:
Sugar cane decaffeination is often termed as a natural process decaf. Ethyl Acetate is an organically existing compound (C4H8O2) and by-product found most commonly in the fermentation of fruits, and is present in both ripe bananas and beer for example.
The plant we work with in Colombia uses water from the Navado del Ruis (a volcano between Caldas and Tolima) and natural ethyl acetate from fermented sugarcane sourced in the southern region of Palmira, Colombia. This process begins with steaming of the coffee, increasing its porosity, beginning the hydrolysis of caffeine, which is usually bonded to salts and chlorogenic acid in the bean.
The beans are then submerged in an ethyl acetate solvent, until 97% of the caffeine is removed. A final steam is then used to lift residual traces of the compound. The ultimate residue which remains is ≥ 30 ppm, which is a level dramatically less than that of a banana!!
Want us to grind your coffee?
We sell all our coffee as whole beans to preserve their freshness and to allow you to grind the coffee to suit your preferred brew method.
However, if you'd like to request that your beans are ground before we ship them to you, please add a comment on the checkout specifying the brew method that the beans should be ground for.
Brew methods:
- Pourover
- Filter Machine
- Aeropress
- Bialetti
- Espresso Machine
- French Press
Transparency
How We Buy Our Coffees
Raw Material
Raw Material are a Community Interest Company based in the UK, meaning that 100% of profits are put to work to create economic freedom for those coffee producers who are most marginalised. Driven by social objectives, the guys at Raw Material are set on bringing real change to the people who matter most! All of our coffees from Rwanda, Burundi, Timor-Leste, Colombia and Mexico are bought through Raw Material because they don't just do great social work, they also have some of the most delicious coffees out there!!!
Trabocca
Trabocca are an import company based in Amsterdam, who have been working in Ethiopia for 20+ years. In that time, they have helped to rejuvenate a number of defunct washing stations, led social initiatives and built modern schools, community centres and amenities to improve living conditions for coffee growing communities. They then used this experience to branch out to other origins, including Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Kenya and Indonesia. We love the amount of information that's available at every stage of the supply chain from Trabocca and the brilliant resources that they have available to roasters too. All of our Ethiopian and some of our Kenyan coffees are bought through Trabocca.
Planting Costa Rica
Nico from Planting Costa Rica actually used to be a barista at Café Blá! Now he's importing amazing coffees from his native Costa Rica. Through his successful 2017 crowdfunding campaign, he was able to start addressing the socio-economic gap, helping small producers wanting to move into speciality growing and processing practises modernise and improve quality. We have been following the progress from the beginning, buying lots from El Bueyerito every year. The progress made in terms of quality has been amazing! Now with a wide and exciting range of partner farms, we are really excited to continue buying our Costa Rican lots from Nico. In March '23 I was lucky enough to be able to go to Costa Rica with Nico and Fatima and meet all of the producers we have been buying from and more! Costa Rica is a wonderful and green country, with a lot of positive green initiatives and government agencies helping keep the coffee trade fair for those who are most important, namely the farmers.
What does "Powered by Vits.coffee" mean?
Café Blá is owned by Jacob Henry-Foord and Alexander Vits. Jacob is head roaster for Vits der Kaffee, Alex's roastery and café.
When Stephanie made the decision to sell Café Blá, for whom we have been roasting the coffee since its opening in 2016, I (Jacob) approached Alex with the idea of taking on the café as a joint venture, specifically with the idea of moving the Vits third wave coffee selection over to the Blá brand, thus creating a new sub-brand from Vits.
So as not to confuse the loyal Vits customers, we decided to add the tagline "Powered by Vits.coffee," seeing as the coffees are roasted in the Vits roastery by the Vits head-roaster, who also just happens to be co-owner and CEO of Café Blá.
Confused? We hope not!
Put in short: Café Blá coffee is sourced and roasted by Jacob in the Vits roastery.