Our latest decaf coffee and we're heading back to one of our favourites processed with the Colombian Sugarcane EA method sourced by Raw Material.
Risaralda is a blend of coffees from the regions of Asocafe Tatama Santuario, El Aguila, and Entreverdes. A regional blend means Raw Material can maximise the impact for producers across the department of Risaralda, by bringing much larger volumes of their coffee to the specialty market. The blend is brought together in Santuario, where the coffee from each region is blended and prepared for milling.
From time to time they also purchase coffee from other municipalities in Risaralda for this blend, such as Apía, Mistrato, Belén de Umbría, and Guatica. The regional blend is a great expression of the region as a whole, and a stable and consistent blend all year round.
A first payment is received by producers on receiving parchment, followed by a second payment on export. Each producer receives a stable price for their harvest, making collaboration in the Risaralda regional blend a consistent and secure choice for the region’s producers. By purchasing this regional blend, we're helping to provide economic stability and a consistent market for the largest portion of these producer’s harvest.
The Sugar Cane EA Decaffeination method
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 Raw Material 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 acids in the bean.
The beans are then submerged in an ethyl acetate solution 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!
Raw Material have created a nice info graphic of the process here.