This coffee comes from Unión Ramal Santa Cruz SPR, Mexico, a Fairtrade-certified cooperative of smallholder farmers located in the buffer zone of the Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. The organization was founded in 2001 and has just under 500 active farmer members. Naturally decaffeinated using the Mountain Water Process (MWP), this coffee was processed in Mexico at the Descamex facility. In order to remove the caffeine in this process, green coffee is soaked in a water solution, which removes both the caffeine as well as other solubles in the coffee (flavor compounds, for instance). The water is removed from the seeds and run through a special filter that captures caffeine molecules and allows them to be strained from the solution. The solution—now containing flavor compounds but no caffeine—is then reintroduced to the green coffee seeds, which reabsorb the soluble materials. The coffee is then dried once more, and prepared for reexport.
