SORRY - SOLD OUT WITHIN 45 MINUTES!

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Finca Los Nogales - Oscar Hernandez - 300g

Variety - Colombia - Washed Extended Fermentation - Microlot #3

Producer: Oscar Hernandez Son of Ricaurte Hernandez

Altitude: 1950 m.a.s.l

Coffee Cascara Pulp Decaf

Tasting Notes: Upfront notes of Dried Dates and Spiced Hot Chocolate coat the mouth with beautiful and clean notes of Cinnamon and Nutmeg, almost reminds me of a Chai Tea on the finish. Very complex coffee! One of the most exquisitely balanced coffees I've ever had. 

The Story:

Wowee.

Only a few weeks ago, a competitor in the American National Coffee competition tricked the judges with a decaf coffee as part of his routine. Guess what, it tasted so good, he won! Yep that's right, with a decaf, booking himself a ticket to the World Championships! 

Truth is, we had already purchased this farm's decaf before that news had broken and when we say this decaf is special, it's one of the best coffees we've ever tasted. Now let's not ramble on and get down to the nitty gritty.

Because it's demanding a high price it makes for a very difficult roasting schedule. We will only be pre-selling this until we have enough orders to do a full roast so we can get the best control out of the roaster, we do not want to make any mistakes or compromise quality so your orders may have a delayed dispatch longer than usual. We also only have about 10kg of each decaf so that means 30 odd total orders.

Story about the Farm:

The Farm Nogales is a family farm currently managed by Oscar and his sisters Angie and 
Olga Hernandez. They decided to take over the family farm and turn it into a family 
business in order to support their mother after their father Ricaurte Hernandez was 
murdered by armed groups in 2013. Violence has always been immersed in Colombian fields and this story was no exception. On February 17, 2013, while Ricaurte was heading to the Nogales farm, armed groups ended his life, making him another victim of the endless violence that plagues the country The coffee leader, pioneer of high quality coffee, unforgettable symbol of courage and perseverance, leaves a great precedent and example in history for the thousands of farmers who live off the coffee plantations.
The blow to the family was accompanied by a country that mourned their loss. They 
decided to sell the farm after that tragic event, seeking to offer the mother better wellbeing. However, the youngest son Oscar Fernando - who at the time belonged to the National Navy - decides to leave his military career and take charge of his father's great legacy.

“For me, the best way to heal those wounds was to return to the farm, it was to continue 
with his legacy and feel him close, to believe that he is proud of what we are doing as a 
family” Oscar Hernández, son of Ricaurte

So to the decaffeination process;

The decafs from Los Nogales are decaffeinate at the farm in a unique way we haven't stocked before, it's essentially done with the cascara which is the fruit from the coffee cherry, below is a report of the process from the farm;

After the coffees have gone through the first phase of cleaning, sorting, rinsing and some for thermal shock, there is another fermentation happening at the farm to produce the decaffeination compounds.

The waters with mucilage and coffee skin that resulted from pulping the coffees during the washed process are now being pressed and fermented in two separate stages. The initial stage is an alcoholic fermentation and the second stage is an acetic fermentation.

The aim is to obtain a solvent from each of these fermentation stages, which is then mixed and filtered. The final product contains Ethyl acetate and Ethyl lactate produced naturally. This is then used as a selective compound that captures caffeine when used in the right conditions with the coffee beans for approximately 48hr, the main characteristic of this solvent is its high fruity aromas and its capacity to maintain the coffee flavour. In order to obtain different flavour profiles the farmer then decides the kind of fermentation to use, the length of time, the kind of bacteria or yeast to add and the drying process.