The Swiss Water process is an organic, 100% chemical-free option for decaffeination. It was discovered in the 1930s in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, and is commercialised by the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company Inc, founded in 1988. This method does not require the addition of chemicals, instead of relying on a supersaturated green coffee solution called Green Coffee Extract (GCE).To decaffeinate coffee, fresh GCE is introduced to a batch of green coffee. As the GCE is already saturated with all the water-soluble compounds found in green coffee, minus the caffeine, the matching molecules won’t diffuse out of the coffee beans—but the caffeine will. The flavour is retained in the beans while the caffeine is removed. Thanks to some scientific smarts and creativity, it’s possible to have decaf coffee that tastes the same – just without the caffeine!
This lot comes from Perú , from the Sol Y Cafe Producers Cooperative. Peru was divided into 24 departments before the 2002 addition of the Callao province and a collective renaming to regions. It is the Cajamarca region, home to many great coffee-producing provinces that Sol Y Café members grow their coffee, from the slopes of the Andes mountain range to the Amazon rainforest and its diverse flora and fauna. There are many protected areas around, and this means production leans towards an organic methodology with the aim of preserving as much of the biodiversity as they can.
