It's official! Almanac is now roasting decaf coffee! Why did it take so long? How does it taste!? Let's chat!
Why now!?
Because I'm proud of it! I've been asked in the past about decaf options and I don't want to do something for the sake of it. Decaf beans that I had tasted were really not that great, there's an awful aftertaste that doesn't get me excited to drink it, and I'm not selling a product I wouldn't be happy drinking myself. But this ones different! Over the last couple months I've been sneakily force feeding some people decaf coffee instead of regular single origins to see what they say. Not a single person has picked out the fact the coffee was a decaf option. The taste is filled with chocolate notes throughout, so much so that I was tempted to write chocolate three times as the tasting notes. It's nice chocolates, not the generic 'Chocolate' tasting note that actually just translates to bitterness. Think chocolate bars, maltesers etc. It has no nasty decaf aftertaste and is genuinely unrecognisable as a decaf product in my opinion.
How is it so good?
It's a new decaffeination method called sugar cane processing. It starts as the green beans are sent into steam chambers to remove silver skin from the bean. They are then submerged in spring water and once saturated are sent to extractors where the beans have direct contact with Ethyl Acetate which (compound extracted from sugar cane) completely strips the coffee bean from any caffeine. The coffee is then dried in chambers to return it to the same moisture level it was prior to entering the decaffeination process.
Due to only water and sugar cane being used, the bean preserves its inherent origin flavours.
What's the availability / consistency?
Look, I'm honestly not sure. It's a new method for the importer that I'm working with. I've been lucky enough to have stock secured for at least the next 3-4 months at least. It's something that they will continue doing in the future but it may have some changes. They're still experimenting with different varietals and alterations to the processing method, so while I have every intention to keep a decaf option available, if these production changes lead to the coffee not tasting as good as it currently does, then there may always be the chance I stop serving the product. I don't imagine that will be the case, but it's good to be transparent about it. I'll keep selling this decaf as long as the quality is there and I'm proud of the taste.
I should be able to keep the decaf up on my online store 24/7 for the time being. It's been up for a few weeks now and there's been enough orders to keep it viable which is amazing! The feedback so far has been super encouraging also.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it's tasting, or if you have any questions about it feel free to reach out anytime!