Ethiopia - Banko Gotiti Decaf AE

Yirgacheffe, in southern Ethiopia's Gedeo Zone, is one of the most celebrated origins in speciality coffee, known for its purity and elegance. This lot comes from smallholder farmers in the village of Banko Gotiti, where coffee is grown on small family plots at 1,950–2,200 metres and picked by hand.

The coffee is washed and dried on raised African beds, where slow, even airflow preserves the quality of the bean. The result is a soft, delicate cup with a medium body and low-to-medium acidity: fruity, floral jasmine, with milk chocolate and caramel sweetness. Scored 86 by the SCA.

The decaffeination process:
This coffee is decaffeinated using ethyl acetate, a compound that occurs naturally in sugar cane, coffee and fruits such as strawberry and banana, but can also be produced synthetically. Because it is highly selective for caffeine, ethyl acetate is widely regarded as one of the methods that best preserves the character of the origin and the qualities of the bean.
The process begins with steam, which removes the silverskin and raises the bean's moisture content, opening up its cell structure. The beans are then treated with a solution of water and ethyl acetate, which draws the caffeine out gradually, over several stages, as it diffuses from inside the bean into the solvent. Finally, steam is applied to remove any trace of ethyl acetate, and the beans are dried back to their original moisture level.