Mexico - Ozolotepec Washed Decaf

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: Pretty classic Mexican chocolatey caramels, some hints dried blood orange, lots of dried fruits (dates, figs, raisins) and overall very sweet.

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

Traceability:

The Story:

If you want a great explainer of why Decaf has been so tricky to keep in stock - there's a great piece in Coffee Intelligence here. Decaf is having an absolute moment, especially sugarcane/E.A decaf. The Colombian plant - Descafescol - is absolutely slammed. After delays (and our first 2 cover lots, Megadu & Palestina) we have 6 months of supply enroute - but after the container it was on got delayed landing in the UK, we ran out. There's so much demand for decaf right now that many importers cannot keep it in stock (for "spot" sales - off the shelf, the sort of buying we try to avoid), so we were lucky to secure this from Scenery pals Osito.

We expect to finish the sacks we bought over a 2 week period, and we've received confirmation our next lots have finally made it to port in the UK.

NB - such a short run, we've not made postcards for this lot

E.A Decaf:

We love Sugarcane/EA decaf - it really is miles above other processes - but we think there's been a definitive monopoly of Colombian decaf as a result. The reason is as follows - Ethyl Acetate is a readily available solvent and natural compound found in many fruits and foodstuffs. It's very easily produced - ethyl alcohol created during fermentation is combined with acetic acid (vinegar) to create Ethyl Acetate, a compound which has a high affinity for selectively dissolving caffeine.

Colombia has two very complimentary agricultural industries - that of sugarcane, and of coffee. Sugarcane processing produces the raw materials to make plentiful, cheap ethyl acetate, using up a waste product for good use, and there is a ready supply of excellent coffee. Descafecol is the only "sugarcane" decaffeination plant in the world, and the explosion in popularity of this style of decaf has seen them run at full capacity non-stop for many years (sometimes with the drying protocols of their output somewhat compromised to keep the volume flowing). Colombia exports green coffee - you cannot import it, nor would it make financial sense to ship coffee from Ethiopia to Colombia for decaffination even if it was legally allowed (lest your decaf cost the same as a competition Gesha)

We've been itching to see the same process applied to other origins. Enter Coffee Compagnie in Germany. They've started using locally sourced Ethyl Acetate (sounds scary, but it really isn't) to run the same process, but due to their location in a consuming country (a major logistical transit point at that) means we can spread our decaf buying programme across a wider spread of origins, whilst keeping the profile of EA decaf we love so dearly. With the decaf plant in Colombia absolutely slammed - we've even started seeing Colombian decaf coming via Germany, like this lot