NIGHTCAP: Colombia Divino Niño washed decaf EA Process

Osito provides us with our first ever decaffeinated coffee. We had a lot of requests lately for a decaf coffee and we couldn’t really find anything interesting that was on par with the quality of our regular coffees. This coffee is decaffeinated by using the EA process, keeping the flavor notes intact. This coffee has notes that reminds us of cherries, marzipan and caramel. We love the coffee industry’s growing attention to high quality decaf. Since the start of this year we have been looking for great decaffeinated lots and have found some beautiful coffees along the way. Since day one Osito Coffee has been working with the group colloquially known as “Divino Niño” in Suaza. Over these 3+ years, this group has grown from 25 producers to over 50. 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 EA process is relatively simple. The coffee beans are moistened with water and EA is circulated throughout. The EA binds with the caffeine in the bean and extracts the caffeine while leaving most of the other flavor compounds. After the desired caffeine level is reached, the EA residue on the beans is removed by steaming them.