Villamaria Decaf - Colombia - Sugarcane Decaf

Producers: Small-holder producers in the Villamaria region

Mill/Cooperative: Jamaica Mill, Villamaria Red Assocation 

Region: Caldas, Colombia

Processing: naturally processed then decaffeinated using the sugarcane/E.A. method

Tasting Notes: 

Malz, Weiße Trauben, Schwarze Kirschen

Malt, white grape, dark cherry

As with all our coffees, this decaf is something that we’re proud of: it tastes great and is produced with skill and care.

This decaf comes from the Villamaria Association in Colombia. We’ve been working with Villamaria since 2018, through our importing partners, Raw Material.

This lot is sun dried before being transported to a local decaffeination facility in nearby Manizales. Decaffeinating coffees so close to where they were grown is a huge advantage for quality and it helps local communities increase the value of the product. It is common for coffees to be sent as far as the U.S. or Germany to be decaffeinated.

In Manizales, the beans are decaffeinated through a process known as ‘sugarcane’. This process starts by fermenting molasses derived from sugarcane to create ethanol. The ethanol is mixed with acetic acid to create ethyl acetate (EA). Sugarcane grows plentifully in this region and EA is used by local food and beverage industries. 

The coffee is steamed so that it becomes porous, before being washed with EA. This dissolves the caffeine. The beans are then washed and dried, leaving no caffeine and less residual traces of EA than in a banana!