Wilton Benitez Red Bourbon DECAF

About the farmer and farm

Granja Paraíso 92 sits in the Cauca department of southern Colombia, at 1950 meters above sea level, and is run by producer Wilton Benítez.

Wilton is a researcher and innovator with more than 12 years in coffee. On the farm he developed his own eco-friendly drying system and bioreactors for fermentation.

The coffee grows on volcanic soils, with daily temperatures ranging from roughly 12 to 35 °C.

This lot uses the Pink Bourbon variety.

Processing: washed + Sugar Cane (EA) decaf

After hand-picking, the cherries are sorted by density and size, the ripest are selected, and the fruit is sanitized with ozone and UV light.

The whole cherries are briefly dipped in 90 °C water and fermented for 24 hours in anaerobic bioreactors with added microorganisms.

After depulping, the coffee ferments for another 112 hours in separate bioreactors, with the juices collected during the first phase added back in. The beans get a hot-water treatment and a cold rinse, and dry for 36 hours (12 hours at 30 °C and 24 hours at 25 °C) down to 11% moisture.

After hulling and sorting, the green beans are decaffeinated with ethyl acetate made from sugarcane. The solvent selectively draws out the caffeine, any residue is removed with steam, and the beans are dried again.