Bayter Family Decaf Natural, Gold Medal 2023
Peaches, strawberry and gummy bears. Fruity, sweet and mild.
We were proudly awarded “Best Decaf in North America” for this exceptional coffee during the 2023 Golden Bean competition, the world’s largest roasting competition. We first got to know the Bayter family and the rest of the team at Forest Green Coffee through social media, of all places. A properly placed advertisement caught our eye, and we were intrigued about some unique processes and flavor profiles they were promoting. We sent off for some samples and were absolutely blown away by the flavors we got from their offerings. As luck would have it, the team at Forest Coffee was headed to Portland a few weeks later for the Specialty Coffee Expo, and we were lucky enough to get to spend a good deal of time with them during the conference. During our team’s time at the conference we tasted hundreds of coffees and this coffee was the best one we tried, caffeinated or decaf. This coffee is one of the flagship coffees produced at El Vergel Estate, located in the micro lot next to the washing station, and surrounded by guava trees. Planted in 2016 and 2018 with a quantity of more than 40,000 plants, this lot has been on of the best of the estate to experiment with processing bigger lots. Processed with a unique method at the estate that consists of a special 2 step anaerobic fermentation to develop a more intense but clean profile, to showcase all of the attributes of variety combined with a flavor unique from the process. Afterward the coffee is dried for 15-25 days, and finally it decaffeinated using the sugarcane (ethyl acetate) method, where the coffee beans are circulated with water containing the natural ester over and over until caffeine content is below 0.1% (far below the content of other methods). We have not found another method that retains as much of the original quality and flavor as the sugarcane method, and this coffee is a pristine example!
COUNTRY: Colombia
REGION: Caldas
ELEVATION: 6200 ft
PRODUCER: Elias, Shady, and the rest of the Bayter family
PROCESS: Natural, Sugarcane Decaf
VARIETAL: Caturra
This coffee is best 3-10 days after it was roasted.