Decaf <3 Peru Mountain Water Process

Tasting Notes: Graham Cracker, Cocoa, Brown Sugar

Origin: Peru

Region: Jaén, Cajamarca

Process: Washed, Mountain Water Process Decaf

Variety: Catimor, Caturra, Bourbon, Typica

Elevation: 1650 - 1800 masl

Importer: Cafe Imports

This offering comes to us from Lima Coffees, a grower's organization in Peru's Cajamarca department. We've had coffees from Lima in the past but this is our first decaffeinated offering from them. The association's president, Rony Lavan, has a passion for seeking out high-quality Peruvian coffees and has spent much of his career helping small family farms in Cajamarca produce better, higher-scoring coffees.

Lima Coffees, which began in 2016 with 300 producers, has attracted new members year after year, now representing over 800 smallholder farmers. Understandably, producers are attracted by the opportunities provided by the organization. Lima Coffees aids farmers in gaining access to the specialty market through investments in infrastructure, specifically to aid in fermentation and drying, key components in producing high-quality specialty coffees. Currently, about 80% of Lima Coffees producer partners have access to fermentation and drying equipment, a fairly large increase from about 30% of their initial 300 producers having such infrastructure when the association first started. 

The Mountain Water Process, which is different in name but similar in technique to the Swiss Water Process, is considered to be one of the cleanest decaffeination methods. This is thanks to it not utilizing any external chemical compounds to dissolve the caffeine, as some other methods do. In MWP, green coffee is first soaked in a heated water solution which removes both the caffeine and the soluble (flavor) compounds. Once a batch of water is highly concentrated with the soluble compounds from the coffee it is run through a filter that removes the caffeine. The caffeine-free, but soluble-concentrated, solution is then reintroduced to a new batch of green coffee. Thanks to the principles of osmosis and concentration gradients, the caffeine once again moves out of the coffee and into the water but the soluble/flavor compounds do not since the water is already concentrated.

This coffee is sweet and balanced with a cup full of graham cracker, brown sugar, and cocoa.