The Needle's Eye: Organic Decaf, 225g Bag
Profile: Butterscotch, Majoram and Nutmeg
Certificate: Organic. Swiss Water Decaffeinated. Rainforest Alliance. Fairtrade.
Country of Origin: Indonesia
Farm/Producer: Koperasi Permata Gayo
Coffee Species: Arabica
Varietal: Catimor, Typica
Altitude: 1400 m
Harvest period: January to December
Process: Semi Washed
Drying: On patios
Our Swiss Water Decaf is produced by Permata Gayo in the Gayo Highlands region of the Central Aceh - northern Sumatra, which is about as rural as you can get in Indonesia, it is a high plateau in the centre of the province.
This is a Swiss Water Decaf coffee that is decaffeinated naturally using water and without the use of any chemical processes or solvents, guaranteeing a pleasant sweetness in the cup. It is a process that preserves all the aromatic molecules and the full quality of its flavours.
The process works by immersing the green beans in water in order to extract the caffeine content. The water preserves the soluble flavour components of the green beans and this protects the original characteristics of the coffee. In order to remove the caffeine from the water containing these soluble flavour elements, the water is passed through a filtration system. This produces a solution comprising the original water and the soluble coffee flavours, now free from caffeine. The resulting green coffee is 99.9% caffeine-free.
Permata Gayo Co Op formed in 2006 in the Bener Merjah district by 50 coffee famers spread throughout five villages in the Bandar sub-district in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia; primarily to increase traceability, sustainability and transparency in pricing to its members. In 2007, the cooperative was certified organic by the USDA and European Union.
A year later they became Fairtrade Certified. The Cooperative now has over 2,000 members producing 100% Fairtrade and Organic coffee, as well as Rainforest Alliance too. The Co Op also has affiliations with the Café Femenino project, and within 1 year had succeeded in building a school with the premiums paid.
The Fairtrade premium has been spent on 24 different projects within the cooperative. Just some examples of these are; creating a coffee nursery, building a cupping lab and employing 2 Q graders, training on how to properly compost, investing in grass cutters to help avoid the use of herbicides and supplying foods to members in the low season.