Sweet apple with hints of vanilla & caramel, creamy body.
Speciality coffee isn't just about caffeine delivery, it's about enjoyment.
Thankfully, decaf no longer has to taste "meh", and as a result of us having great quality decaf coffee beans, this also enables us to produce great quality 50/50 half caffeine blends using these great quality decaf beans.
So if you want to enjoy more cups of coffee without the kind of results that you might encounter with full caffeine coffee, great quality half caffs are a great solution.
This is a blend of two great tasting, high quality single origin speciality coffee beans.
Toffee Apple Nicaragua is bean from the Cerro Dantali El Diablo Nature Reserve in Nicaragua, with a Speciality Coffee Association score of 86. A washed processed coffee grown at altitudes of 1250-1450m, Red Catuai, Yellow Catuai & Caturra varietals, roasted to a medium roast profile.
Caramel Fudge Sugarcane Decaf Colombia is a sugarcane decaffeinated coffee bean produced by smallholder farmers in the Andes mountains of Huila, in southwestern Colombia. They have an SCA score of 85, the varietals are Caturra & Castillo, and they're grown at altitudes of 1500-1750m.
Coffee Tasting Tips
- Extraction matters, for freshly roasted coffee. See my brew guides.
- Let your coffee cool for 2-3 minutes, the more sensitive taste buds that detect more subtle notes, can be desensitised by higher temperatures.
- Alter the strength, for manual brewing methods such as cafetiere, Aeropress or filter, try increasing the amount of coffee to water if the flavour isn't as intense as expected.
How it Tastes
The first time I tasted this, I wrote "Sweet", followed almost immediately by "Apple Pie & Custard". It really is a sweet coffee, even enjoyed black.
If you mix it with milk, the sweetness is amplified and it really brings out the custard notes.
I know some people reading this will think "don't be daft Kev, coffee just tastes like coffee", but just wait until you taste this.
The theory that coffee just tastes like coffee, is something that comes from commodity coffee. Coffee traded and roasted on huge scales has to be treated in a way that does lead to this kind of coffee all tasting very similar, with the subtle nuances roasted away.
With freshly roasted speciality coffee beans, however, you'll notice that the flavour notes aren't all roasted away, and as a result, each bag of coffee beans will taste distinctive from the last.
If you struggle to notice these flavour notes, see the coffee tasting tips above, in particular try improving the extraction, and letting it cool down a bit before tasting.
La Bastilla Farm & Colombian Andes
The full-caffeine beans in this half caffeine 50/50 blend is from La Bastilla farm, a Rainforest Alliance certified coffee farm within the stunning tropical paradise of the Cerro Datanli El Diablo Nature Reserve, a crucially important biodiverse protected habitat.
The decaf beans are farmed by smallholder coffee farmers under the shade of Walnut trees & Plantain plants in the central mountain range of the Colombian Andes in the Huila Department of Colombia.
