Ethiopia Tesfa - decaffeinated

Product detailed description

Region: Oromia, Regional State, Atnago/Limmu Seka district, Jimma zone
Farm: Tesfa
Altitude: 1750-2000 meters above sea level
Caffeine removal method: Sparkling water method

Fahem General Trading PLC (FGTPLC) is a company owned by Managing Director Mr. Mohammed Lalo. To enhance the export business the company established washed coffee pulping station at Checka. It has also organised 754 out grower farmers that are distributed across the districts namely Atnago farmers group. The sites are situated at altitude range of 1755-2010 masl.

The site is located in the production belt of Oromia , Regional State. at Atnago/Limmu Seka district, Jimma zone, Oromia Regional State. The GPS data for the group is 8.3075 Latitude and 36.9442 longitude.

The company is committed to social responsibility affairs and supports the community in seedling raising and distribution, providing strong field technical support for out growers in agronomic aspects of coffee, grain mill establishment (two mills were established), school block building and the construction of kindergarten.

The group currently supplies RA, CAFÉ Practices, Organic, FT/FFL and COSA certified coffee.

Number of permanent employees: 20
Number of employees during the harvest: 150
Size in Hectares: 200 ha
Elevation: 1800-2010masl
Cultivars: 74110, 74112, 74148 and 75227
Harvest Months: October -December
Soil type(s): Red clay loam

Coffee is grown here under shade trees. The cultural practices employed on the farm includes pruning,weeding , fertilisation (90% oragnic and 10% in organic fertiliser of NPS). Harvesting of coffee is carried out in two methods depending to type of processing wet/washed/ and sundry /unwashed. For sun dried, the matured cherry indiscriminately harvested by separating ground and tree cherry. While for washed coffee processing careful selection or picking of red cherries by hand is practised for best quality coffee.

Processing is a major activity in coffee production and the most critical from a quality point of view. Coffee processing involves a series of stages, each of which has a distinct purpose. The steps are sorting, pupling, fermenting, washing and drying. The parchment coffee is dried on drying tables under sun. The dried parchment coffee is stored in the warehouse built on the factory premises.

The dried parchment coffee from farm store is despatched to Addis Ababa, Horizon plantaion PLC(Coffee Processing and warehousing). The coffee is received at Coffee Processing and Warehousing where it is de husked, graded and packed. The Dry mill has a capacity of accommodating 48,000 tons of green bean. The coffee is shipped to Djibouti. 

The farmers are paid on the volume of coffee supplied to the group. The unit price is determined on the daily ICE Arabica market price of coffee. There is a second payment which is based on the negotiated unit price, The second payment is also based on the volume of delivered to the group.

THE SPARKLING WATER DECAFFEINATION PROCESS

This process was first discovered by a scientist called Kurt Zosel at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in 1967 as he was looking at new ways of separating mixtures of substances. In 1988, a German decaffeination company called CR3 developed this process for decaffeination whereby natural carbon dioxide (which comes from prehistoric underground lakes) is combined with water to create ‘sub-critical’ conditions which creates a highly solvent substance for caffeine in coffee. It is a gentle, natural and organically certified process and the good caffeine selectivity of the carbon dioxide guarantees a high retention level of other coffee components which contribute to taste and aroma.

The process is outlined below:

The green beans enter a ‘pre-treatment’ vessel where they are cleaned and moistened with water before being brought into contact with pressurised liquid carbon dioxide. When the green coffee beans absorb the water, they expand and the pores are opened resulting in the caffeine molecules becoming mobile. After the water has been added, the beans are then brought into contact with the pressurised liquid carbon dioxide which combines with the water to essentially form sparkling water. The carbon dioxide circulates through the beans and acts like a magnet, drawing out the mobile caffeine molecules. The sparkling water then enters an evaporator which precipitates the caffeine rich carbon dioxide out of the water. The now caffeine free water is pumped back into the vessel for a new cycle. This cycle is repeated until the required residual caffeine level is reached. Once this has happened, the circulation of carbon dioxide is stopped and the green beans are discharged into a drier. The decaffeinated coffee is then gently dried until it reaches its original moisture content, after which it is ready for roasting.

There are several benefits to using this process for decaffeination:

• The agent used for extracting the caffeine is entirely natural and the process can be classified as ‘organic’ due to the complete lack of chemicals used throughout. There is also no health risk by consuming coffee that has been decaffeinated in this way.
• The way the process works means the other compounds in the green bean are left untouched, meaning decaffeination has no effect on the flavour and aroma of the finished product. The carbon dioxide is very selective and doesn’t extract the carbohydrates and proteins in the green bean which contribute to flavor and smell.
• The cell structure of the green bean and the finished roasted bean is unchanged which is of great advantage when working with specialty coffees.
• The by-products are 100% natural and recyclable.

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We roast 3 times a week, so your coffee always arrives freshly roasted. We have been roasting our own coffee since 2019 in Silůvky in southern Moravia.