E. A. Decaf - Bernardo Echeverry, Colombia

Sourced: Bell Lane Farm Direct
Farm: Finca La Estrella
Altitude: 1400 - 1600 masl
Variety: Caturra / Castillo
Process: EA Sugar Cane Decaf
Cup Notes: Peacan Pie, Walnuts, Milk Chocolate

Sugarcane Ethyl Acetate (E.A.) Decaffeination is a natural process that maintains the integrity of green-coffee flavour and allows us to offer decaffeinated coffee that follows an integrated vertical supply chain, as the growing, processing, and even the full decaffeination process all happens at the source in Colombia.

Bernardo Echeverry is part of the 3rd generation of a coffee-producing family, his grandparents initially bought a small farm in Santuario, Risaralda in the 1950s and started a long-term family project. The Echeverry’s went through years of solvency and crisis as well – they understood from the beginning that any productive farm had to focus on productivity, strict quality standards and especially a rigorous cost-efficient structure.

In 1980, a young Bernardo decided to dabble with a new farm located in Santuario, Risaralda. Santuario is also known as “The Tatamá Pearl” due to the rich biodiversity that is found within the Tatamá National Park, a vital natural gem that encompasses part of Santuario. This region holds an important recognition, the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia was declared Unesco’s World Heritage for being an exceptional example of a cultural, sustainable and productive landscape – a historical milestone for the country.

Initially, Bernardo’s farm was planted exclusively with Bourbon and Typica plants and the wet milling process was done traditionally. As the coffee industry began to evolve, Mr Echeverry saw the need to improve his farming techniques by producing more high-quality coffee with an optimal cost of production. Finca La Estrella is currently processing all of the coffee cherries in a high-tech ecological mill that consumes significantly less water than the traditional system.

This is one of our Farm Direct coffees.  Bell Lane coffee has a special relationship with Bernardo, we currently use a number of his coffees in our blends, but we are very excited to offer one of his single-origin coffees now as a natural decaf.  

To find out more about Bell Lane Farm Direct our head roaster Niko has written about our programme, you can read his blog in our coffee journal.