Colombia Huila descafeinado lavado al agua

Why do we say this decaf is water-washed? What does that mean?

It refers to the natural way these beans are decaffeinated, which is done as follows:

The coffee beans are immersed in very hot water and then placed in a mixture of water and green coffee extract. The mixture has previously undergone caffeine reduction. To achieve equilibrium, the green coffee extract draws the caffeine out of the immersed beans.

Then, the water from each bath is passed through activated charcoal, which traps the caffeine. The coffee beans go through several of these baths to remove almost all the caffeine. The water and green coffee extract can also be reused for another bath.

With this method, we get a naturally decaffeinated coffee with a flavor that's practically the same as regular coffee and no chemicals.