This coffee is a blend of Castillo and Caturra produced by a group of farmers based in the Huila region of southwest Colombia. We sourced this coffee through Café Imports, an importer committed to developing longstanding partnerships with coffee producers in Colombia. Most of the coffee producers in the region manage only small parcels of land - 80% of farmers own less than three hectares.  As a result, they undertake every step in growing and processing their coffee themselves, typically without any additional assistance - which is an incredibly time-consuming and labour-intensive feat.

Café Imports has partnered with a decaffeination lab in Colombia to prepare this decaf. The decaffeination process involves using ethyl acetate (E.A.), which is a byproduct of sugarcane fermentation (and obtained by Café Imports from the local sugarcane industry). E.A. has special properties that allow it to act as a solvent to bond with and remove caffeine molecules from green coffee.  The coffee is first steamed for 30 minutes at low pressure to open up the coffee seeds’ pores.  It is then placed in a tank containing a solution of water and E.A., where the E.A. begins to bond with the caffeine inside the seeds. The tank is drained and re-filled repeatedly over the course of eight hours, until caffeine is no longer detected.  The seeds are steamed once again to remove any remaining traces of E.A. It is then vacuum dried to reduce the moisture content of the beans.