We are very excited to bring you this beautiful Ethiopian DECAF, an unusual opportunity that we couldn't let pass by. In spite of going through the extra step of decaffeination, this coffee retained the best part of its very classic Ethiopian flavour profile and we find it features notes of Bergamot, Vanilla and Nougat. The days of horrific decaf are definitely behind us dear coffee lovers!
 
Social Context
 
This particular coffee was produced by smallholder farmers in the area around Agaro town in the Jimma Zone. It was processed at Telila washing station in Agaro, owned and operated by American-Ethiopian Mike Mamo of Addis Exporters. His company provides QC oversight and manages post harvest processing. Working with countless farms around  Agaro, Telila is a beautiful station situated on the main road which connects The Ethiopian Coffee Institute’s Agaro testing site with Agaro town. The nearby river provides water for the coffee processing: the cherries are depulped and the coffee is soaked in soaking tanks before being washed with clean water and dried on traditional raised bamboo drying beds in the full sun for around 15 days. Mike’s crew covers the drying parchment during mid day if the temperatures become too intense.
 
Environmental Context
 
The coffee farmers in this region use traditional farming techniques and no artifical inputs which means, like most Ethiopian coffee, this coffee is organic by default. Deforestation is striclty regulated and penalties and fines are enforced rigorously for cutting down trees without permits in Ethiopia. Most smallholders in the Jimma zone have small garden plots and grow their coffee trees under native forest canopy in a fairly intact forest eco system. The water that is taken from the local stream to facilitate the post-harvest processing is filtered through natural filtration systems and released back into the stream in order to minimise pollution and the impact on the local communities' water supply.
 
Economic Context
 
We have been working with Mike Mamo through different logistics partners from the start and are very happy and grateful to be part of this value chain with him because the work he does is crucial for the communities he works with and his focus on quality as well as economic, social and environmental sustainability is very much in line with our values here at Kontext Coffee Co.
 
EA Decaffeination Process:
 
The decaffeination process for this coffee takes place in a specialised plant in Germany. Once the still caffeinated green coffee lands in Germany (via container ship), it is transported to the decaf facility, where it is steamed to open up the cell structure and washed in Ethyl Acetate (EA), an ester of ethanol and acetic acid. This is widely known to be a very mild way of decaffeinating coffee. Ethyl Acetate is a binding compound which is naturallly occurring in different fruits and is a byproduct of sugar cane processing which is why this method is also often referred to as 'sugarcane decaf'. The ethyl acetate binds to the caffeine molecules and is then washed out of the coffee beans. As a binding agent EA is very selective and leaves most of the natural flavour profile of the coffee intact. The beans are then redried and can be shipped on to their final destination.