Decaf Chiapas MW

The 250km route from the city of Oaxaca, next to the Pacific Coast, passes through the famous coffee region Pluma. Like pearls on a chain, long extinct volcanoes cross the countryside, leaving the region with a very fertile volcanic soil.

Clouds driven from the Pacific Ocean break on these mountain slopes, which reach up to 3000 meters above sea level. This is why the region is in general very humid with heavy rainfalls of up to 5,000 mm per year being common. Fortunately during the coffee harvest it stays mainly dry.

This region continues to produce coffee with traditional varieties: Pluma Hidalgo, Arabica Tipica and Bourbon. Smaller farms are found with good washing and sun drying facilities. It is a tradition that farmers in this region separate their coffee exceptionally well before and during the wet milling process and thus produce a perfectly clean parchment without unnecessary defects. The yields for coffee produces in this region, or in other word the factor between parchment coffee and clean green coffee obtained after the dry mil process, are the best in all México.

From January to March, which is the main harvest season, consistent sunshine from early in the morning until late afternoon, present optimal conditions to sun-dry the coffee and it is therefore no wonder that mechanical dryer are scarce. If one can say anything negative about this region it would be a very low production per hectare, on average only 4 bags.

MOUNTAIN WATER PROCESS

Mountain Water Process is a method of indirect decaffeination. All our MWP decafs come from Descamex, which uses pure water from Pico de Orizaba—the highest mountain in Mexico. The process begins with a chemical analysis to determine optimal conditions, and then the beans are steamed and prepared for extraction. The extraction process uses a water-based saturated solution and a precise combination of pressure, vacuum and environmental temperature that in order to extract caffeine while retaining the coffee’s flavor compounds.