COLOMBIA DECAF SUGAR CANE EA DECAFFEINATED

Description

COLOMBIA DECAF SUGAR CANE EA DECAFFEINATED

Decaffeinated specialty coffee from Colombia. With its sweet, tropical fruity, citrus flavors, it eliminates all stereotypes about decaffeinated coffee in one fell swoop.

Descafecol is the only decaffeination plant in Colombia in the Andean region. The plant relies entirely on the clear waters of Navado el Ruiz (a snow-capped volcano on the border of the counties of Caldas and Tolima) and natural ethyl acetate from sugarcane plants in Palmira, Colombia. Ethyl acetate is an organic compound with a sweet odor (C4H8O2) – formed during fermentation and contributes to what is often called “fruitiness” in a young wine.

At Descafecol, the decaffeination process begins with steaming green coffee at very low pressure to remove the silver skin. The beans are then moistened with hot water, which swells and softens, initiating the hydrolysis of caffeine bound to chlorogenic acids. (Hydrolysis means that water interacts with a compound and gets rid of other particles.)
The ethyl acetate solvent is then circulated through the beans several times until at least 97% of the caffeine is removed. Low pressure saturated steam is then used to remove residual ethyl acetate and finally the coffee is dried in a drum under vacuum to remove water and adjust to a final moisture content of 10-12%.

The coffee is cooled to room temperature with fans and then polished with Carnauba wax to protect it from moisture.