How long IS a piece of string? Decaffeinated Coffee

This coffee is a Medium/Medium Dark roast, so works well in pressure devices such as an espresso maker, AeroPress or moka pot. However, it’ll brew very happily in any device!

If you want to know more, see our brew guides for making coffee.

We source this eye-poppingly delicious coffee from seven small coffee farms in Huila, Colombia. The growers come from four coffee-producing regions in the Huilan department: Acevedo, Palestina, Pitalito and Timana.

Huila is Colombia’s premier coffee region. Not only was it the first historical department in the country to begin producing coffee. Not only does it sport some very nice high altitudes. And not only is its climate ideal for coffee. But, great news, it’s home to mineral-rich volcanic soil the arabica plants just love! All these come together to create a stellar bean that impresses with it’s acidity-sweetness balance.

Fancy meeting some of the producers? You’ll find Don Gabriel Castana and his son, Jeferson Castaño Motta, in Acevedo, Duverney Sanchez in Pitalito and Carlos Guamanga in Paicol!

Roasting is key to achieving uber-delicious coffee. Even the best speciality beans will taste bog-standard if the roast isn’t spot on.

Luckily, we know the secrets behind a great roast, so your coffee beans are in safe hands! Small-batch roasting comes first, as this means we can customise every roast to the specific requirements of the beans. Then there’s our hand-roasting technique: rather than letting a machine take the lead, we use all our senses to time each roast to the second.

What comes next? Ahhh, that would be our regular roasting. We roast our speciality beans multiple times a week to ensure that we always send the freshest coffee beans to your door.

Ordered some coffee from us? We’ll have roasted it only days before. Yum!

Every speciality coffee has a score: a jolly number out of 100. If this number is below 80, the coffee isn’t speciality. It’s commodity, instead and ends up in supermarket instant and chain café cups. It’ll give you caffeine, but it won’t give you FLAVOUR.

Want coffee that is super-delicious, free from defects and perfectly sweet? Yeees? Then speciality coffee scoring 80 points plus is for you!

Speciality coffee ticks all the boxes. From acidity and balance to mouthfeel and aroma, it’s the best all around! Certified Q Graders test the coffee on all these factors (and more) before giving it a score. The coffee gets the speciality title if that score is 80 or more!

But, a word of advice. Don’t choose coffee based purely on the cupping score. Higher scores often indicate more experimental coffees, or ones with some offbeat flavours. This doesn’t mean you’ll like the coffee taste any more. Go with your gut – you know what you like most!

Two Chimps coffees all sit in the 80-90 range. We tend not to source anything in the high 90s, as this is often a marker of a very very rare coffee (rather than one we think you’ll love)! We always keep flavour and smiles in mind when selecting your coffee range!

These speciality decaf beans are decaffeinated by the sugar cane decaffeination process. Sugar cane is readily available in Colombia and this process decaffeinates your coffee using an organic compound found in the sugar cane crop. The compound is derived from a clever mix of acetic acid (more commonly known as vinegar!) and a natural extract distilled from the sugar cane.

So, how does it work? First off, decaf specialists steam the green beans to open up their pores and  enable the caffeine extraction. The natural sugar cane solution then rinses repeatedly over the beans to dissolve their caffeine. A pure water wash comes next, before the beans are partially dried until 10-12% humidity remains.

This natural decaffeination method gives a pretty dandy decaf. Why? It’s all down to the absence of excess heat and pressure which, if present, would disturb the bean’s cellular structure.

Roast Style: Medium/Medium Dark

Varietal(s): Castillo, Caturra, Colombia

Decaffeinated processing method: Sugarcane decaffeination

Altitude: 1500-2300 metres above sea level

Region: Huila and Cauca

Certification: Speciality

What does this all mean? Check out our Jargon Buster.

Our speciality coffees taste good, do good, smell good…

Choosing speciality beans from our little Rutland roastery means that you’re getting the very finest, ethically sourced coffee. We keep our supply chain to a minimum to make sure that a higher percentage of the profits go straight to the farmers. What’s more, our roastery is carbon neutral, so you know you are getting top-notch coffee that takes care of the planet.

We’re a jolly bunch of people with a genuine passion for coffee. Just give us a call if you fancy chatting coffee – we’re always on hand to help!

Here’s a question for your next coffee break: how long is a piece of string? No, seriously, how long is it?? I need to know!