A 50/50 blend of our decaffeinated Colombian coffee beans, with our Rwandan single origin beans.
Colombian component:
This coffee comes from the biggest farm in Colombia based around the beautiful area of Salgar in Antioquia. The Green Coffee Company was established in 2017 with the mission to change the dynamic of Colombian production using innovation, expertise and quality to bring consistent coffees to clients around the world.
The farm now spans 4,000 hectares. The company has invested heavily in technology, and has two centralised wet mills. These wet mills are some of the most advanced in Latin America with the use of cherry colour sorters and the use of electronic tracking throughout the process. This advanced wet mill system has helped them reduce the volume of water needed to produce coffee by over 21 million litres.
There is also a strong focus on the environment and social conditions that are part of the philosophy of the supply chain. On the farms they are working actively to protect the watershed by planting over 26,000 non coffee trees on the land. They actively manage 55% of this land as well as having 153 hectares of designated reserved forest. They have also planted in this time over 2 million coffee trees of Castillo and Colombia on land that was formerly used for cattle farming. In the nursery, they have completely eliminate the use of plastics used for seedlings by implementing the Ellepot system where a machine fills biodegradable, cellulose bags with a mix of peat perlite and coconut bark that is the ideal development environment for germinated seeds. This improves upon the manual method in several ways which also helps to improve the time to germination for seedlings as well as reducing the mortality from 23% to 15% so more make it to be planted in the field.
The farms have over 400 permanent employees who also have access to secured regular work as well as having a pension program for the workers. They also have an equal opportunity program with 27% of the employees being female and with the aim to create more leadership roles for women at the farms. They have also an initiative supporting single mothers into employment in the local community.
The coffee cherries are received at the wet mills. They are then floated in small tanks to remove debris and floaters. After this, the cherries are colour sorted using MultiScan technology before being pulped, fermented and then dried.
From here the parchment is bagged and moved to the drymill facilities where the lots are created and tagged. The coffee is then milled and and ready for decaffenation.
Rwandan component:
The Horizon washing station is situated in the Kigoma sector of the Nyanza district in Rwanda’s Southern Province, just 20 kilometres from the city of Huye.
The washing station sits at 1,680 metres but, the farms surrounding the station are much higher up, closer to 2,000 metres. 1,200 farmers contribute cherry to the station from farms that are all within 2km from the site.
The average size of each farm 3 hectares but, some have only 100 trees. Other crops include bananas, pineapples and avocados. Total production for 2023 was estimated to yield a potential 800 tons of cherry but, due to bureaucracy, production ceased early and this target was not reached. The station's owner Fidel, is hoping to continually grow the operation to support the local community.
The sparkling water decaffeination process:
The green beans are soaked/cleaned in water, this allows the the pores to open up as the beans expand and caffeine molecules become mobile.
Pressured Carbon Dioxide is introduced, this combined with the present water creates sparkling water. The CO2 acts like a magnet to the caffeine molecules, extracting it from the beans.
The water is then drained into an evaporator which precipitates the caffeine rich carbon dioxide out of the water.
This cycle is repeated until the caffeine level is low enough to be classified as decaf.
The decaffeinated coffee is then gently dried until it reaches its original moisture content.
Kenyan component:
Marcarius Manchura established the Kemangau estate in 2014, it is located in Kisii county, Mochhoge Borabu constituency. The Kisii region is perfectly suited for the growth of coffee with its volcanic soils and high elevations.
Kemangau farm receives support from Kahawa Bora Millers, which translates into English 'Excellent Coffee Millers'. They offer agricultural advice, with regular training on smart agriculture and good agricultural practices. These include, good pruning practices, manure and fertiliser application, weed control and renovation advice to help keep the farm in optimal condition.
At the Kemangau estate, only red ripe cherries are picked. The cherries are sorted at the factory before pulping is carried out. Fermentation then takes place in concrete fermentation tanks for a period of 12-14 hours. Afterwards thorough washing is carried out using rainwater, supplemented by clean river water. Finally the cherries are dried on raised beds for 7-10 days, whilst further sorting is done, to remove any unwanted materials and insect damaged beans.
