A medium roast 100% Arabica from the mountains of Peru and Mexico, decaffeinated using Carbon Dioxide process to gently remove caffeine from coffee beans. Compressed to a liquid state, --- the compound we exhale with every breath --- is a natural solvent that grabs caffeine and pulls it from the bean. Because carbon dioxide adheres only to caffeine and not to the elements that give coffee it's great flavour.
The Peruvian beans come mainly from the Central de Cooperativas Agrarias Cafetaleras (COCLA). It has produced and exported washed Arabica coffee since 1967. Their coffee plantations are in the Quillabamba region in the Cuzco Department of Peru, east of the Inca City of Machu Picchu. COCLA is farmer owned including more than 7,500 producers from 23 different organisations including co-operatives, associations and grower committees - with over 25% of the membership being comprised of women. The farmers have approximately 17,000 hectares, growing exclusively Arabica coffee, with an annual production of more than 7,000 tonnes of coffee. Other sources are: San Juan del Oro, which is the oldest cooperative in Peru. Members of San Juan del Oro are based in the two valleys of Inambari and Tambopata, on the eastern side of the Andes in southern Peru (in the province of Sandia and state of Puno). Beans are aslo sourced from Unicafec, a producer association with 259 members which is based in the small town of San Ignacio in Northern Peru on the border with Ecuador. The town is dominated by the coffee trade and various multinationals, and small farmer organisations are based in the town along with the constant presence of middle men. These players create a fiercely competitive market. As a response Unicafec was founded in 2001 by smallholder producers that were interested in improving the quality of their coffee and exporting their coffee directly in order to secure better prices. Unicafec has been certified organic (OCIA) since 2003 and Fairtrade since 2005. Beans also come from CECOVASA, which was founded in 1970, when a group of Peruvian coffee farmers in the Lake Titicaca region of Peru came together to find a better way to sell their coffee. CECOVASA is comprised of eight cooperatives and was Fair Trade certified by Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) in 1993,
Those from Mexico come from the Union de Ejidos "San Fernando", which was formed in 1984 by small-scale coffee growers in the San Fernando and Ocozocoautla municipalities of Chiapas state, Southern Mexico. It was formed with the aim of solving the financial problems of its members, marketing coffee and providing technical assistance. The organisation has 1,700 members, each producer has an average of 1.5-two hectares of land.
Manufacturer's web site: www.equalexchange.co.uk
Fairtrade.
Gluten Free. Suitable for
vegetarians & vegans. This is an
organic certified product.
