Here is our latest decaf for you. It’s great as a filter brew, and the espresso roast is surprisingly good too.
Let us know how you get on.
Decaffeination Process: Sugar Cane or Ethyl Acetate (as we say these days)
Regions and Varietals: Kericho County
Altitude: 1400-2000 meters above sea level.
Process: Fully washed and then decaffeinated
Potential Varietals: Ruiri 11, SL28, SL34, and Batian.
This coffee has been sourced through Omwani and Sydney at Lot 20 Coffee. These guys are working on the ground across the best bits of African coffee. Sydney Kibet is one of those guys who has achieved so many things that it makes the rest of us look ordinary at best.
As I understand it, Sydney set up Lot 20 as a side project from his day job of computer programming. His plan was (and still is) to add value to producers in the up-and-coming volcanic region, known as The Southern Rift of Kenya. Adding value can come in the form of co-fermentation (re-fermenting coffee in parchment with dried tropical fruit; this is popular in some places. Sydney really appreciates people who are involved in detail. I remember him saying, “Those women are amazing”, regarding the ladies standing by the drying beds, sorting out the unripe cherries. It is a laborious job that gets little thanks. When we were in Rwanda last year, Sydney was the go-to guy for yeast! There has been a lot of interest in adding different yeasts to coffee ( AKA inoculation), which has been interesting.
One of the realities with Kenya coffee, for me, is that I haven’t experienced coffees like the ones we had years ago. There may be the SL28 listed above, but it may be a small percentage where the Ruiri used to be.
In a cupping bowl:
Aromatics: Good Soft Fruit.
Body: Medium
Acidity: Soft Currants & citrus.
On opening, this is soft, sweet, and curranty with a balanced acidity and a lingering citrus with a big body. On cooling, there is an eventual (albeit) slight reveal of decaffeination. Most people would just drink it and not realise.
Overall, I would be happy to drink this mid-morning or afternoon for a nice, fruity filter brew.
Two days later, I have brewed this as a batch-brew filter for the team here at HQ. The only taste of decaf is in my head. 120g of coffee for 1.8 Litres of coffee. Unlike the cupping bowl, there was more citrus and general bright juiciness. I was looking for a second cup, which would have been the 4th of my morning, including 2 decaf! I have been brewing my filters a little bit stronger of late, in the 65-67g /litre range. This is because sometimes when you have smaller cups and you are tasting a range, you want people to have a cup to remember, faster.
