Colombia Villamaria sugarcane decaf

Product detailed description

Villamaría is a Colombian municipality located in the Caldas region. The region is supplied with numerous water resources and natural resources. Villamaría is located a few kilometres from the city of Manizales, whose urban areas are surrounded by the Chinchiná River. Their "Jamaica" drying station is located in Chinchiná in Caldas. The station currently represents the harvest of 30 to 50 coffee-growing families in the Villarazo area, which are located at higher altitudes than the drying station itself. As Jamaica lies 500 metres lower than the producers, at an altitude of 1300 m above sea level, this climate is more suitable for processing honey and natural coffee due to the higher temperatures found here.

This station focuses on the production of washed, honey and natural coffee. Using a Nuna dehydrator and mechanical drying systems, humidity and temperature control throughout the drying process helps in the processing of honey and natural coffee.

Dried for 15 days in a greenhouse with controlled temperature and finished in a mechanical dryer. Sugar cane decaffeination is often referred to as natural decaffeination. Ethyl acetate is an organically occurring compound (C4H8O2) and a by-product most commonly found in fruit fermentation and is present in, for example, ripe bananas and beer. The plant they work with in Colombia, a short drive from Villamaría, uses water from Navado del Ruis (a volcano between Caldas and Tolima) and natural ethyl acetate from fermented sugar cane, which comes from the southern region of Palmira in Colombia.

This process begins by steaming the coffee, increasing its porosity and initiating the hydrolysis of caffeine, which is usually bound to salts and chlorogenic acid in the bean. The beans are then immersed in ethyl acetate solvent until 97% of the caffeine has been removed. Finally, steam is used to remove residual traces of the compound. The final residue that remains is ≥ 30 ppm, which is a level dramatically lower than in a banana!