Farm info

This coffee is a blend of multiple regions in Colombia with a focus on cup consistency. It is decaffeinated by the local company Descafecol SA, in the town of Manizales, Caldas, using the Ethyl Acetate (EA) process.

Ethyl acetate is produced by esterification between ethyl alcohol and acetic acid. The ethyl acetate used by Descafecol is produced by sugarcane grown locally. Sugarcane grows at lower elevations than coffee and is often planted at the base of the same mountains where coffee flourishes. Ethyl acetate and spring water are the only substances coffee comes into contact with during the decaffeination process. This process is FDA approved and the ethyl acetate produced by Sucroal is verified food grade, kosher, and halal.

Ethyl acetate is a natural solvent, meaning it can dissolve other substances. The EA process gently extracts the caffeine from coffee beans, avoiding the use of excessive heat that could damage the structure of the beans.

The EA process begins with a pretreatment step of steaming beans at a low pressure to remove silver skins. Coffee is then moistened with hot water to swell and soften the beans to catalyze the hydrolysis (the chemical breakdown of a substance due to reaction with water) of the caffeine, which is bonded to chlorogenic acid inside the coffee.

Coffee next passes to an extractor, where caffeine is removed by repeatedly washing with the natural solvent ethyl acetate. This process happens several times to complete the extraction stage, removing more than 97% of caffeine, per US standards.

Once caffeine extraction is complete, a flow of low-pressure steam is passed over coffee to strip residual ethyl acetate, leaving less than 5 ppm, which evaporates at 70°C once coffee beans are roasted.

Coffee, now decaffeinated and free from ethyl acetate, moves from the extractors to the vacuum drying drums to remove the water applied during the moistening step and adjust the final humidity of the beans to between 10-12%. Coffee is cooled to ambient temperature using fans and polished as the final step of post-treatment. Coffee is then ready to be packed and shipped as decaf, providing the full and delicious flavor of Colombian terroir to those sensitive to stimulants!

_________

Palmera, named for Colombia’s national tree, is part of Ally’s Core Coffee program. The country boasts hundreds of microclimates from its Caribbean coast in the north to its equatorial highlands in the south, and Palmera Supremo represents a classic fully washed profile, with balanced notes of citrus, stone fruit, and rich chocolate. Full body and medium acidity are characteristic of clean Colombian coffees.

Palmera is sourced and processed with our partners Aromas del Sur in Pitalito, Huila, where their state of the art dry mill sorts, cleans, and selects coffee prior to preparing it for shipment. As with all of Ally’s Core Coffees, Palmera represents the hard work of many farmers and supports many communities of producers.

Read more about our Core Coffee program.