The Coffee Producer Toolkit #8: Decaf
Shownotes
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In this eighth episode, we give you a practical manual to take your coffee into the fast-growing market for decaf.
We look at what it takes to decaffeinate coffee yourself on the farm. Then, we take you inside the Descamex plant in Veracruz, Mexico, to see how the Mountain Water Process works at scale, from steaming and osmosis to slow drying and in-house caffeine testing.
We cover what decaffeination does to flavor: a mellowing of intensity, aromas that sometimes come forward, harsh coffees softened, and a "spa effect" that can bring tired, baggy coffee back to life. We also look at which of your lots to send first, and which to keep away from decaf.
And we finish with the practical stuff: five-tonne minimum batches and why you should find your buyer before you commit, sharing a container and splitting a lot across smaller buyers, booking six to nine months ahead, what it costs, and why you should pass that cost on rather than swallow it.
Hosted by coffee journalist James Harper (Filter Stories podcast) and fermentation specialist Lucia Solis (Making Coffee with Lucia Solis podcast), it's built for farmers who want to run their farm like the business it is.
Over two years we interviewed 50+ producers and experts across 20 countries. Each episode takes one part of the business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are doing.
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People mentioned in the episode:
- Gerrit Peters — 19grams / Grownd, Berlin, Germany
- Óscar Hernández — Finca Nogales, Pitalito, Huila, Colombia
- Óscar Hernández — Finca Nogales Instagram
- Pablo Salazar — Cafeología, Chiapas, Mexico
- Carlos Rendón — Finca Kassandra, Veracruz, Mexico
- Sergio de la Vequia — Mexico
- Demetrio Arandia, Daniel Robles and Ignacio Martínez — Descamex, Córdoba, Veracruz, Mexico
- Melissa de Gasperín — Rancho San Felipe, Veracruz, Mexico
- Ernesto Pérez Orea — Grupo Cafetalero APG, Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico
- Communal Coffee — Berlin, Germany
Resources:
- James Hoffmann's Decaf Project
- Photo of the raw caffeine at Descamex (James's Instagram)
- NCA National Coffee Data Trends 2025
- Perfect Daily Grind: Does decaf deserve better?
- Lucia's Fermentation Training Camp
Coffees cupped before and after Descamex's Mountain Water Process: Brazil Sierra Negra, Peru SHB, Mexican SHG RFA, Colombian Organic JAS, Sumatra Mandailing G1, Ethiopia Sidamo G2
Cover Art: Nick Hafner
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:
The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro