Peru - Chanchamayo - Chemical Free (Swiss Water Decaf)

When decaf is as fresh and high quality as the ones we source - as long as it's prepared/brewed the same, it will taste indistinguishable from "Normal Coffee".

What it won't do is taste like decaf. No flat boringness, no weirdness, none of that thin aftertaste you get from beans that sat in a warehouse for a year. Most people can't pick it in a blind cup.

Some of our favorite reviews are from customers who trick their guests with decaf and they have no idea it's not coffee.

A trace. No decaf anywhere is at absolute zero - that's true of every decaf on earth, and any brand claiming otherwise is lying.

Our water processes remove over 99.9% of it. For an average 8oz cup of coffee it can contain up to 200mg of caffeine, while our decafs would be under 15mg for the same cup.

Worth knowing if you're at the very high sensitive end: a small number of customers do notice the trace late at night. If that's you, we'd recommend a curfew. Remember caffeine has a half life of up to 10 hours so work out how well your body can process it and calculate backwards from when you go to bed to work out a sensible cut off time.

Our roastery isn't organic certified, so we don't label our coffee organic.
It's a fair question and the honest answer is more interesting than a yes or a no.

More than 80% of the green coffees we buy are certified organic at farm level - grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, and certified at origin by the bodies that operate there. We keep that documentation on file, and we can tell you the status of any lot we've bought. Furthermore the Swiss Water and Mountain Water Processes are also Certified Organic processes, meaning after the process is completed that farm level certification carries thru to the final product.

That certification covers how the coffee was grown. It doesn't carry through to the bag on your shelf. Under USDA rules the roastery has to hold its own certification before a finished product can be sold as "organic", and our roastery doesn't hold it yet. So nothing we sell is USDA Organic, none of it carries the seal, and nothing on our packaging should be read as making that claim.

There's a second reason we don't lead with the word. Some of the best smallholder coffee in the world is grown to organic practice and never certified, because certification is very very expensive and administratively heavy for a family farming a few hectares. We buy that coffee too - chosen because it tastes great, not because of the badge it arrives with.

If you want to know how a particular coffee was grown, ask us. We'll tell you exactly what we hold on that lot.

Swiss Water and Mountain Water use filtered water to draw the caffeine out with a green coffee extract and leave everything else in place.

Sugar Cane process uses a compound derived naturally from sugarcane, common across Latin America, which gives a slightly sweeter cup.

Every process we use is solvent-free. Which one a coffee went through is on the label, because we think you should get to choose.

You'll never see a Methylene Chloride decaf come thru our warehouse. We care about your health.

Yes! Our decaf coffee is a great choice for pregnant mothers, providing you that delicious coffee experience you know and love, without the caffeine. Always check with your healthcare provider for personal recommendations.

That reputation comes from methylene chloride - a solvent some large-scale decaffeinators still use. It's a fair thing to be wary of, and it's why we don't go anywhere near it.

Everything we sell is decaffeinated with water or a naturally-derived sugarcane compound. No harsh solvents at any stage. That's the whole answer, and it's the reason we can tell you exactly how every bag was processed.

If you're not sure because there's too many options, definitely start with the Decaf 3 Pack. Three different coffees, three different processes, and you'll know your preference by the end of the first bag. It's by far our number one seller especially for new customers, it's how most people here found their regular.

If you like something strong, Dark Knight is our darkest and strongest roast.

If you want the perfect all rounder our Peru is our longest serving Single Origin and our Zero to Hero blend is our most versatile all rounder.

If you're after something lighter, head over to our Filter Selection that's full of lighter roasted coffees best brewed black in a percolator or pour over.

Whole Beans — you own a grinder and grinding at home.

Espresso — commercial or prosumer machine.

Domestic Espresso — home machines: Breville, Sunbeam, DeLonghi, Gaggia. Ground slightly coarser, because home pumps run lower pressure than café equipment. If you're unsure between this and Espresso, pick this one.

Stovetop — moka and atomic pots, also if you have an automatic coffee machine, this is a good option for that too.

Aeropress — medium-fine.

Filter / Pour Over — medium-coarse. Covers V60, Chemex and drip.

French Press — coarse. Also the right pick for a plunger.

No machine at all? French Press grind and a plunger is the simplest way in.

Acidity in coffee comes from the bean and the roast, not the caffeine. Darker roasts sit lower on acidity - that's why our darker blends are what we point reflux and sensitive-stomach customers toward.

The simplest way to think of this is.
Lighter the roast = Higher Acidity
Darker the roast = Lower Acidity.
The longer it's roasted, the darker it gets and we're essentially cooking out that acidity.

It's one of the questions we get most, so you're in good company. Tell us what you're working with and we'll point you at the right one rather than guess.

We're roasters, not doctors - if it's a diagnosed condition, your doctor outranks us.

Some of it, and we'd rather be precise than impressive about it.

We independently test selected coffees for mycotoxins with each new shipment. Every measurement to date has come back below detectable ranges. We've never had a failed test.

The coffees that've been tested can be found in our Mycotoxin Free Collection

We don't test every lot, because the testing is very expensive and we'd rather tell you that than imply a blanket claim we can't back. Anything currently tested is marked as such.

We roast in small batches and dispatch within 24-48 hours of roasting.

This matters more for decaf than for regular coffee. Decaffeination makes a bean more porous, so it goes stale faster because oxygen penetrates the bean easier. Months in a warehouse is what makes supermarket decaf taste flat and sad - not the decaf.

It's the whole reason this company exists!

Airtight, cool, out of the light. The bag it came in is fine - just press the air out and seal it.

If you stocked up and have enough for a couple months, the freezer genuinely works for anything you won't get through in a few weeks. Just portion out the extra bag into smaller 12oz-1lb airtight containers or bags, then pop them in the freezer and take out what you need rather than thawing the whole lot repeatedly.

We've had beans in the freezer for over 12 months and they taste exactly the same as they did when we put them in there!

PS; you can grind beans straight out of the freezer, no need for them to thaw out.

Yes, and it's most of what our customers make. The darker roasts hold their own in a flat white or a latte without disappearing under the milk. Medium roasts go both ways - good black, good white.

If you're using alternative milks, the darker the roast is better because they have less acidity which is the reason you see that splitting or curdling.