Description
This coffee from Taferi Kela, Sidamo, Ethiopia comes through Bette Buna and was decaffeinated by Coffein Compagnie using the ethyl acetate process. The method was chosen because it can extract caffeine from green coffee beans in a gentle, targeted way, while preserving as much of the original character of the coffee as possible.
Bette Buna literally translates to ‘House of Coffee’ and the company has been deeply rooted in the village ever since Grandfather Syoum and Grandmother Emame asked Dawit and Hester to take over their farm, but more importantly, their responsibility for building the community of Taferi Kela. Even though this village shares a mountain range with better-known Sidamina producers, it has been overlooked so far, and no other company or industry of any type works in this area.
Coffee production in Ethiopia accounts for about a third of the country’s GDP, but more than 90 percent of people working in coffee do not make a livable income. Bette Buna has set out to change that in their community. They teach their community farmers to improve their soil, grow back agro-forestry systems, and understand the importance of picking ripe cherries. Ripe cherries weigh more and produce better coffee, so the farmers get paid more by weight, and also receive a quality premium.
Perhaps most importantly, they distribute more than 350,000 healthy seedlings every year from their in-house nursery. These seedlings are climate-change adapted varietals, and on average the farmers who plant them make a minimum of $2 per year per seedling once the trees are grown. This means an economic impact in the area of more than $650,000 a year in a region where the average household income is less than $50 per month for an average family size of 9 people.
With Bette Buna, the traceability is exceptional. Every lot specifically tracks and maps the people involved at each stage of production, from the people who picked the cherries to those who processed and milled the coffee. This level of transparency is almost unheard of in Ethiopia. Not only does it help confirm that the coffees are the same as those tasted pre-shipment, but it also provides assurance that the people who did the work are getting fair wages. Everyone involved is adding value and being valued. This transparency work has the additional benefit of meaning Bette Buna is prepped for EUDR compliance.
The processing team in Taferi Kela is led by Hester, Dawit, and Sissay, a war veteran and cranial gunshot survivor. The team processes each lot with a controlled approach that brings out the absolute best of the cherry. Their dedication and perseverance created this very consistent, excellent natural lot.
After the cherries were sorted for this extended natural, the coffee was dried on raised African-style beds. What makes it an extended natural is that the cherries were dried in shade rather than in the sun. This gives the cherries a longer drying time and increases complexity. It is now a standard processing technique for the Bette Buna team, and the results speak for themselves.
Once the correct moisture level was reached, the cherry was bagged, tagged and moved to store to rest for a minimum of 8 weeks to improve the complexity and intensity of each cup profile. After dry milling locally to remove the hulls, the team applied another round of hand sorting to remove any primary defects. After that, the bags of green coffee were loaded on a truck for the 3-5 day drive to the Bette Buna dry mill in Gelan, located close to Addis Ababa. Here the green beans underwent another round of cleaning, screening on size and density, and colour sorting, and were bagged a final time, ready to be exported.
The coffee was then decaffeinated at Coffein Compagnie. The green coffee beans are first treated with steam to remove the silver skins and increase the water content of the beans, opening up the cell structure. A water-ethyl acetate solution is then used to selectively extract the caffeine from the beans in several steps, where the caffeine diffuses from the beans into the solution around it. Subsequently, steam is used to remove the remaining ethyl acetate from the beans, which are finally dried to their initial moisture content.
Ethyl acetate is naturally present in sugar cane, coffee, and fruits such as musk, strawberries and bananas, and is also used as a natural or artificial flavouring in food products. In this process, it allows the coffee to be decaffeinated in a gentle and targeted manner, while keeping the profile closely connected to the original Taferi Kela lot.
Декофеинизация чрез захарна тръстика
Bette Buna се обработва чрез естествения метод Sugarcane Decaf, който използва етилацетатов разтвор, извлечен от ферментацията на захарна тръстика.
Този процес преминава през няколко етапа.
Кафето първо се третира с пара при ниско налягане, за да се отворят порите на кафето, преди да се овлажни с гореща вода, за да позволи на зърната да набъбнат и омекнат. Това подготвя кафето за хидролизата на кофеина, който се свързва със солите на хлорогенната киселина в кафето.
Екстракторите, които са естествено получени от ферментацията на захарна тръстика, а не от химичен синтез, след това се пълнят с овлажнено кафе, което се измива няколко пъти с естествен разтворител етил ацетат, за да се намали кофеинът до правилните нива.
След като този процес приключи, кафето трябва да бъде почистено от останалия етилацетат с помощта на поток от наситена пара с ниско налягане, преди да се премине към последните стъпки.
От тук кафето се изпраща във вакуумни сушилни барабани, където водата, използвана преди това за овлажняване на зърната, се отстранява и кафето се изсушава до около 10-12%.
След това то се охлажда бързо до стайна температура с помощта на вентилатори преди последната стъпка на нанасяне на карнаубски восък за полиране и осигуряване на защита за кафето срещу влиянието на околната среда и за осигуряване на стабилност.
След това кафето се пакетира в чували от 70 кг, готови за износ.
Опитайте Bette Buna в our coffee shop or order through our website to have it delivered!
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