Plateau

Story

Plateau: a vast expanse of level highland typically surrounded by a steep slope on all sides, although occasionally it may be encompassed by mountain ranges. Looking to avoid those caffeine spikes? This is our deliciously smooth decaf coffee, from LaREB and Ana Mustafa. Ana runs the LaREB cooperative with the support of Herbert and other great producers with the aim to support smaller or less experienced members with production advice and professional quality control. They also export coffee directly from the farmers which secures the supply chain and transfers more value back to producers. Anas’ coffees with LaREB contribute to 40% of the money and 35% of the coffees produced by LaREB! Sugar cane decaffeination is often termed as a natural process decaf. Ethyl Acetate is an organically existing compound (C4H8O2) and by-product found most commonly in the fermentation of fruits and is present in both ripe bananas and beer for example. The plant we work with in Colombia uses water from the Navado el Ruis (a volcano between Caldas and Tolima) and natural ethyl acetate from fermented sugarcane sourced in the southern region of Palmira, Colombia. This process begins with steaming of the coffee, increasing its porosity, beginning the hydrolysis of caffeine, which is usually bonded to salts and chlorogenic acid in the bean. The beans are then submerged in an ethyl acetate solvent until 97% of the caffeine is removed. A final steam is then used to lift residual traces of the compound. The ultimate residue which remains is ≥ 30 ppm, which is a level dramatically less than that of a banana!