ICON 46 – Los Nogales, Extended Fermentation Decaf

Los Nogales has a long history of producing exceptional coffees. In 2005, Colombia hosted its first Cup of Excellence – out of over 280 lots, Los Nogales walked away with first prize, confirming the quality achieved through a lifetime of hard work by Ricuarte Hernandez.

Tragically though, Colombia is no stranger to violence, and in 2015 Ricuarte was killed by an armed group while on his way to the farm. The family was devastated and considered selling, however his son Oscar (who had been serving in the navy) made the decision to return home and continue his father’s legacy alongside his sister Angie, brother-in-law Anibal, and the support of many other family members.

Perhaps Ricuarte’s greatest legacy can be seen through his mission to find different ways of adding value to the coffee he produced. Where Ricuarte was interested in soil treatment and accessing new business markets, the new generation has a clear mission to implement research, innovation and environmental protection.
Both Angie and Oscar are trained as industrial engineers (Oscar also studied environmental management) and today technology and biotechnology are utilised to improve every aspect of coffee production on the farm.

To us, this decaf offers the perfect example of that research and innovation being put to use.

Typica is thought to be the first described variety of Coffea and is also known by several different variety names; Blue Mountain, Criollo, Guatemala, Sumatra, Arabigo, Plume Hidalgo, Kona etc.

Typica plants are tall, known to have good cup quality, low productivity and they are susceptible to coffee diseases, however they are well adapted to cold environments. The most prominent traits are the bronze-tipped young leaves. Typica is still grown in Central America, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and South America as well as Indonesia.

The processing of this coffee is incredible for two distinct reasons:

Firstly, the most common methods of decaffeination use chemical solvents, where the coffee is steamed to increase permeability and then rinsed repeatedly with a solvent until the desired level of caffeine has been removed. At Los Nogales they have developed their own protocol using a natural solvent made by fermenting the pulp or peel of the very same coffee being decaffeinated.

Secondly, at Los Nogales the decaffeination takes place at the farm, which means the carbon footprint of the coffee is dramatically reduced. Generally speaking, decaffeination plants are few and far between, meaning that green coffee can find itself travelling halfway around the world before being shipped to a roaster.

With this particular coffee, after the harvesting of ripe cherries, the coffee undergoes an initial wash with treated water to remove any potential contaminants followed by floating to remove any unripe or defective cherries. The coffee is then pulped and fermented for 90 hours with the aid of yeasts, similar to those used in sourdough.

Next the coffee is washed to remove any residue before the natural solvent is added. As mentioned before, this solvent is made from the pulp or peel of the same coffee, which has undergone an enzymatic fermentation process.

The coffee is soaked for 48 hours, during which time the caffeine is leached into the solvent. After soaking there is a final wash to remove any residual solvent before being dried for roughly 8 days.