Decaf Coffee Subscription

Just like our other rolling subscriptions—minus the caffeine. Get 250g decaf coffee at a frequency of your choosing. It is easy to skip a delivery or cancel at any time. You can easily manage your subscription right from our website, ensuring you get the coffee you need when you need it.

We don't grind coffee for rolling subscriptions because we feel strongly that you'll enjoy your coffee more if you grind it fresh. When you sign up you'll receive an email with an offer code for a 20% discount if you order a Baratza Encore grinder on our site. That's £25 off one of the best home grinders on the market, and better coffee from now on.

Our current Decaf:

Colombia 

Region: Huila
Altitude:  1,500-1,750 m.a.s.l
Variety: Castillo, Catura, Colombia
Processing: natural, sugarcane decaf

Tasting notes: A super sweet coffee with bright tropical fruit and orange notes and a satisfyingly full mouthfeel.

When we bought this coffee we had a little debate around the cupping table. Five of our seven recent lots of decaf have been Colombian - should we get one from a different origin this time? We tried lots from Mexico, Rwanda and Uganda but it turns out we keep buying Colombian decaf because it’s the most delicious!

Of course, not all Colombian coffees taste the same. This one is a regional lot from multiple growers along an isolated set of mountains within the central cordillera of the Andes. Its juicy papaya and melon notes set it apart from most decafs, which tend to be less vibrant and fruity.

La Serranía is a regional lot produced by multiple growers along an isolated set of mountains within the central cordillera of the Andes that goes through Pitalito, Acevedo, Palestina, Timaná and Suaza. The coffee is carefully hand-sorted and processed at each individual farm, with special attention paid to the drying process to ensure consistency, uniformity and a clean cup profile.

This coffee was decaffeinated at the Descafecol plant in Manizales, the only decaffeination plant in the Andean region of Colombia. Descafecol uses ethyl acetate derived from sugarcane production in Palmira, about 4 hours drive away.

Ethyl acetate is an organic compound with a sweet smell. It’s created during fermentation and contributes to what’s often described as the “fruitiness” in a young wine.

At Descafecol, the decaffeination process begins with steaming the green coffee at a very low pressure to remove the silver skin that sometimes still clings to the bean after dry milling. The beans are then moistened with hot water to soften them and begin hydrolysis of the caffeine, which is bonded to salts of chlorogenic acid.

The ethyl acetate solvent is then circulated through the beans multiple times until at least 97 percent of the caffeine is removed. A low-pressure, saturated steam is then applied to remove any last traces of ethyl acetate, and finally the coffee is vacuum-dried in drums to remove any water and bring the final moisture level to between 10 and 12 percent. The coffee is cooled to ambient temperature with fans and then polished with carnauba wax to protect it against humidity. 

The beauty of sugarcane decaffeination is that it helps preserve most of the original flavours of the coffee while enhancing its natural sweetness. It’s decaf that doesn’t tase like decaf!

Have you tried natural decaffeinated coffee? - Descafecol

Decafecol Ethyl Acetate Decafe from Cauca, Colombia (interamericancoffee.com)

More about Decaf Coffee

Read more about caffeine and decaffeination in our blog post 'Decaf is not a dirty word'. 

A note about packaging

The pouch your subscription comes in is fully recyclable plastic. The subscriptions are shipped in cardboard envelopes which are fully recyclable. 

Are you storing your coffee correctly? Find out more here.