• Coffee cherries being floated to remove lower density/lower quality cherries, at Jamaica processing station. Photo credit - Jessie May Peters
  • Coffee cherries drying as naturals, on raised beds - Jamaica processing station. Photo Credit - Jessie May Peters
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Scenery Coffee

Colombia - Villamaría Natural Decaf [25/26]

Colombia - Villamaría Natural Decaf [25/26]

Finally, after about 6 months of production delays due to Descafescol being slammed and no slots being available, we have fresh crop decaf back in stock from Villamaría.

Following the outstanding "Nimbus" project - the community blend of Rosado, we've got the all time classic, the original banger decaf - Villamaría natty. This might just have been the decaf lot that kicked off the new wave of decaf - we're reliably told it was the first time an 87+ coffee had been put through the plant at Descafescol back when Raw Material first tried it. Now the plethora of decaf options have never been wider, but we keep coming back to this one as our waystar, not only as a delicious suits-all-purposes decaf, but for supporting the social work that Raw Material do.

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Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Espresso, Moka Pot, French Press

Medium-Heavy Roaster Influence:
Roasted for solubility & balanced acidity (E.A. decaf can be intensely tropical!) and texture.

Best rested: 1-2 weeks

For Filter: We recommend a ratio of 65g/L and 90°C water

For Espresso: 18g in, 40g out, 28-32s for a classic style of espresso.

We're tasting: 

Please note - due to the nature of the physiochemical changes undergone during the decaffeination, this coffee will visually appear to be a darker roast than its actual “perceived” roast degree

We're tasting:
Aromas of sour cherry, malt syrup and chocolate brownie. In the cup we get poached pear, medjool dates and milk chocolate, with that classic pineapple acidity common to the Colombian E.A decaf process. Overall super rich and sweet with a long toffee finish
In milk: chocolate tiffin.

Traceability:

Country of Origin:
 Colombia
Region:
 Villamaría, Caldas
Producer Group:

Smallholder families from Villarazo, La Batea, and Corazol, amongst others.
Farm:
 Field Blend of multiple producers, processed at the Jamaica Processing Station
Varieties:
 Variedad Colombia, Castillo Naranjal
Elevation:
 Farm elevations 1800 - 2100 MASL
Station elevation 1300 MASL 
Process:
 Traditional Natural / E.A Decaf:
Cherries harvested at each Finca and taken to Jamaica station for processing, with floating on arrival. 
Cherries then laid out on raised beds in marsequinas to dry over 15 days, before finishing in a mechanical drier. 
Coffees “E.A Process” (Sugarcane) decaffeinated by Descafecol in Manizales, Colombia.
Import Partner:
 Raw Material
Harvest:
 Crop 25/26 - Arrived UK 24/08/25, 2nd year of working with Villamaría smallholders,


The Story:

We've worked with Raw Material for several years now, their "maximum impact coffee" philosophy aligns with our sourcing program intentions. They operate as a Community Interest Company, returning 100% of profits to producers whilst building processing infrastructure and providing training that serves entire communities..

These producers sell cherries to the station for onwards processing, including using value-addition steps such as anoxic protocols, allowing Raw Material to create large volumes of these coffees with consistent quality, and returning a higher premium to the producers involved in the project. It's this production at scale that allows Raw Material to create the volumes required for decaffeination, as there is a minimum size of 60 bags of raw coffee for the process to occur.

After processing and drying, the coffee is milled and travels to Descafecol in Manizales for in-country decaffeination using ethyl acetate derived as a natural by-product of sugarcane fermentation. The EA process steams coffee to open cellular pores in the green coffee before extraction over 8 hours using the ethyl acetate to selectively remove caffeine, preserving over 95% of original volatile compounds whilst achieving 97-98% caffeine removal.
Descafecol currently operates at approximately 75% capacity, creating significant bottlenecks as speciality decaf demand increases, which is why we've seen (and have purchased) increasingly large amounts of coffee decaffeinated using the same process in Germany. We've booked out 6 months of supply from the producers at Villamaría over 2 lots, continuing our purchasing relationship.


Credit for additional farm & producer photography: Raw Material

Resting: If you can bear to wait, coffee stored in the bag (un-opened) for this period will improve immensely as it releases CO₂ created during the roasting process, and will be at peak flavour for several weeks following the "Best Rested for" indication.
You are of course welcome to open your coffee earlier and it should still be tasty!

Once opened, consume within 2 weeks 

We suggest that all of our coffees are best enjoyed within 3 months from the day it was roasted and indicate the "roasted on" date & "best before" date on the rear of the bag.