Decaf (EA) Sugar Cane - Green Coffee

ABOUT THE SUGAR CANE (ETHYL ACETATE) DECAF PROCESS

The coffee beans are first steamed at low pressure to remove the silvery skins.

The coffee is moistened with hot water to swell and soften the beans and start the hydrolysis of caffeine which is bound to the chlorogenic acid salts inside the beans. This is what we call the preprocessing step.

The extractors are filled with humidified coffee and the removal of caffeine is done by meticulous washing of the beans with recirculation of solvent (natural ethyl acetate EA) in the extractor. This procedure must be repeated several times in order to remove at least 97% of the caffeine present in the coffee beans. This is called extraction.

Once the caffeine extraction is complete, the residual ethyl acetate is removed by a flow of low pressure saturated steam passing through the bed of coffee beans. This step will remove almost all remaining traces of ethyl acetate. A maximum residual of 5 ppm EA will remain in green coffee beans

Then the coffee is sent to vacuum drying drums to remove the water previously applied in the humidification step in order to adjust the final humidity value between 10 and 12%. The coffee is then quickly cooled to room temperature using fans.

After cooling, the coffee is polished with carnauba wax for improved appearance and increased bean protection.