SOTO BLEND DECAF

Soto Blend — Decaf
Colombia · Sotomayor, Nariño
Washed Caturra & Castillo · SCA 86

Twenty smallholders in Sotomayor, Nariño, grow this coffee on farms of two to seven hectares. The lot is a washed blend of Caturra and Castillo — the same high Andes, volcanic soils, and slow ripening that give Nariño its clean, citrus-led character.

The caffeine is taken out by the sugarcane ethyl acetate process, sometimes called natural EA. Ethyl acetate is an ester that occurs in fruit; here it is made from fermented sugarcane. Green beans are steamed to open the cells, washed in a water-and-EA solution that binds selectively to caffeine, then steamed again so the solvent leaves. What remains is the coffee’s structure, not a flattened version of it.

In the cup: honey, citrus, and vanilla on the aroma. Yellow fruit, orange, and vanilla in the sip. A clean, honeyed finish. Delicate tangerine acidity against a medium-low, silky body.

All the ritual. None of the caffeine.