Decaf | Guatemala

Origin: Guatemala
Region: Huehuetenango, San Antonio Huista
Altitude: 1550 – 1650 MASL
Varietals: Caturra, Catuai, Bourbon
Process: Washed & Sun-Dried / CO2 Decaffeination

This Decaf lot is a combined lot from select small holdings in the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala.

Decaffeination processes using carbon dioxide (CO2) differ in their details. All take advantage of the fact that carbon dioxide, when compressed, behaves partly like a gas and partly like a liquid, and has the property of combining selectively with caffeine. In the most widely used CO2 process the steamed beans are bathed in the compressed carbon dioxide and the caffeine is removed from the carbon dioxide through charcoal filtering, just as it is in the water- only process. However, the flavour components remain in the bean throughout the process, rather than being soaked out and then put back in again, as they are in both the Swiss Water and the indirect solvent processes.

Since carbon dioxide is the same ubiquitous and undisputedly “natural” substance that plants absorb and humans produce, and since, in most versions of the CO2 method, the flavour components remain safely in the bean throughout the process rather than being removed and put back in again, carbon dioxide methods would seem to be the decaffeinating wave of the future.