First Published - July 31, 2013
We’re very pleased to introduce something new to you, a very special single origin decaffeinated coffee, Decaf Liberacion. It is a melange from smallholder cooperatives, Todos Santos and La Libertad, in the Northern Guatemala Highlands. This region is famous for producing some of the finest coffees in Guatemala, placing high in the Cup of Excellence. Only farmers growing at altitudes above 1500mASL are invited to join the organisation and they now work with the Slow Food “Salone Del Gusto” movement in Italy. The coffee is described as a “Baluarte”, meaning it has a particular sensory characteristic, in this case a delicious taste, which clearly marks it as being from a specific region.
We think Liberacion is a fabulous coffee and chose these very special beans for a delicious decaf that preserves everything that’s great about this coffee. We use Carbon Dioxide (CO2) one of the most important compounds of our natural environment, for decaffeination. It’s in the air we breathe, it makes mineral water effervescent, and plants assimilate it to grow. It’s also a highly selective solvent for caffeine.
Natural CO2 is changed to a liquid state under sub-critical conditions of low temperature and pressure. These particularly gentle processes, along with CO2’s good caffeine selectivity ability, make for with high retention rates of the delicate flavour and aromatic compounds in the green coffee, ready for hand roasting. There’s no health risk because the coffee is only treated with natural substances and the result is a superb quality 98.5% caffeine free decaf for the most discerning palates.
This coffee tastes of dark chocolate with hints of orange, and tart crisp acidity.
How to serve
As an espresso: gives delicious sweet orange chocolate, crème caramel, sweet burnt sugar, vanilla
With milk: think deliciously creamy praline crème caramel
Now we want
- Our own handmade chocolate orange
- Sophie Grigson’s Maple Praline Semifreddo
- An enormous bowl of good quality vanilla ice-cream slathered in Smitten Kitchen’s amazing Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
Discover the beans
Decaf Liberacion and Liberación, Esquipulas, Guatemala
Vibrant and fresh, sweet orange citrus acidity, notes of apricot and peach
Category – single estate
Varietal – Bourbon, Pache, Catuai, Typica
Process – Fully washed, sun-dried on patio
Photo from Nutmeg Design‘s Flickr photostream under a Creative Commons Licence
