House Decaf: from La Plata & Inzá.
From small family farms in Huila and Cauca to our roastery at Temple Valley. This is the journey behind our House Decaf.
- Origin
- La Plata & Inzá
Colombia - Growers
- Smallholder
farming families - Farm size
- Typically
1–3 hectares - Elevation
- Around 1,800m
above sea level
Good coffee starts with people.
Our House Decaf brings together two lots from Colombia: one from La Plata in Huila, the other from Inzá in Cauca. Each is a collection of coffees grown by smallholder producers, rather than a harvest from one large estate.
The varieties in the blend include Caturra, Colombia and Castillo. Before decaffeination, the coffee is fully washed. Behind those details are families tending small plots, picking their cherries and working carefully through each stage of production.
Small plots.
Careful hands.
La Plata’s town centre sits below the cooler mountain farms where this coffee grows. Many of those farms lie at 1,800 metres or higher, reached by steep roads climbing away from town.
The supplier report describes a group of 30 growers working with Pergamino, the Colombian exporter. Their farms range from one to three hectares. Cherries are handpicked and sorted, then pulped, fermented and dried, often using the family’s own facilities.
Pergamino supports the group with tasting, training and feedback, helping growers understand and improve the quality of their coffee.
A community behind every lot.
The Inzá component comes from smallholders around Pedregal and San Antonio, in the mountainous Macizo Colombiano. The report identifies 52 producers contributing to this lot, with each delivered microlot tasted and selected for quality.
It also describes the Pillimue family’s partnership with Pergamino in San Antonio. With Pergamino’s funding, the family opened a small warehouse and cupping lab, creating a local place to receive coffee, assess quality and connect more farming families with speciality buyers.
These growers produce the coffee. Pergamino’s role is to bring lots together, assess them and help them reach export markets. We roast the resulting decaf here at Temple Valley, near Winchester.
Colombian coffee.
Sugarcane EA decaf.
After the two lots are blended, the green coffee is decaffeinated by Coffein Compagnie in Bremen, Germany, using the Hanseatic Sugarcane EA process.
EA stands for ethyl acetate. In the process described by the supplier, sugarcane-derived alcohol is combined with acetic acid to make ethyl acetate. The beans are steamed and moistened, then washed with it to draw out caffeine.
Further steaming and drying prepare the beans for roasting. The coffee is grown in Colombia; the decaffeination takes place in Bremen. It is then roasted by Baker & White at Temple Valley.
-
01 / Grown in Colombia
Smallholder coffees from La Plata in Huila and Inzá in Cauca, brought together through Pergamino.
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02 / Decaffeinated in Bremen
The blended green coffee undergoes the Hanseatic Sugarcane EA process at Coffein Compagnie.
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03 / Roasted at Temple Valley
We roast our House Decaf in the South Downs, near Winchester, ready for your next cup.
The story, in your cup.
Medium roast with balanced citrus overtones.
Origin information and photographs are drawn from the supplied “Colombia – La Plata / Inza Blend, Hanseatic Sugarcane EA Decaf” report, which describes Pergamino and Mercanta’s sourcing work. Producer numbers and farm details refer to that report. Photography reproduced from the supplied report.