Decaf La Serrania

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Region: Huila
Altitude:  1500 - 1750 m.a.s.l
Variety: Castillo, Caturra, Colombia
Processing: Washed, sugarcane decaffeinated

UK Arrival: May 2026

Tasting notes: Reminding us of toasted walnuts, dried figs and brown sugar every cup is balanced and sweet with a smooth luxurious finish like bakers chocolate.

Back for a fourth time, this regional lot is among our favourite decafs. Naturally sweet and smooth with rich flavours of toasted nuts and dried figs. Sugarcane process decaf is scarce these days—only one Colombian plant, Descafecol, produces it, and demand is outpacing supply. We’ll keep sourcing the best-tasting decaf we can. For now, enjoy this lot while it lasts!

La Serranía is produced by multiple growers along an isolated set of mountains within the central cordillera of the Andes that goes through Pitalito, Acevedo, Palestina, Timaná and Suaza. The coffee is carefully hand-sorted and processed at each individual farm, with special attention paid to the drying process to ensure consistency, uniformity and a clean cup profile.

This coffee was decaffeinated at the Descafecol plant in Manizales, the only decaffeination plant in the Andean region of Colombia. Descafecol uses ethyl acetate derived from sugarcane production in Palmira, about 4 hours drive away.

Ethyl acetate is an organic compound with a sweet smell. It’s created during fermentation and contributes to what’s often described as the “fruitiness” in a young wine.

At Descafecol, the decaffeination process begins with steaming the green coffee at a very low pressure to remove the silver skin that sometimes still clings to the bean after dry milling. The beans are then moistened with hot water to soften them and begin hydrolysis of the caffeine, which is bonded to salts of chlorogenic acid.

The ethyl acetate solvent is then circulated through the beans multiple times until at least 99.7 percent of the caffeine is removed. A low-pressure, saturated steam is then applied to remove any last traces of ethyl acetate, and finally the coffee is vacuum-dried in drums to remove any water and bring the final moisture level to between 10 and 12 percent. The coffee is cooled to ambient temperature with fans and then polished with carnauba wax to protect it against humidity. 

The beauty of sugarcane decaffeination is that it helps preserve most of the original flavours of the coffee while enhancing its natural sweetness.

Have you tried natural decaffeinated coffee? - Descafecol

Decafecol Ethyl Acetate Decafe from Cauca, Colombia (interamericancoffee.com)

A note about packaging

Our bags are #4 (LDPE—Low Density Polyethylene) made with 30% post consumer recycled plastic which can be recycled with carrier bags. These are widely collected at supermarkets and may even be collected by your local council. Find out how to refill or dispose of your Steampunk packaging HERE.