Siruma is a Colombian coffee company founded 5 years ago with the mission of partnering with underserved farming communities in Cauca, Caldas, and Tolima. The company's name comes from the indigenous Wayuunaiki language and means "Heaven and Skies."
The Atunkaa Natural Sugarcane Decaf showcases Siruma's commitment to transparency and fair prices for farmers. It is sourced from the Central Cauca Association for Peace (ACC) in Piendamó, Cauca. ACC was created by a local farmer who wanted to add value to Castillo coffee and provide stable income so neighbors would avoid illicit crops.
The coffee is decaffeinated by Descafecol using a sustainable sugarcane-based process. By working directly with the mill and decaffeinator, Siruma ensures fair pricing and complete traceability back to the contributing farmers.
1) Coffee is picked very ripe so the sugar content is higher.
2) Floating process: Floaters are removed to have only the good stuff for processing.
3) The cherries are moved to a mechanical silo for approximately 48 hours at 28 degrees Celsius to dehydrate the coffee until 20% moisture is reached
4) Humid oxidation process: 24 hour fermentation in sealed bags (similar to GrainPro) at ambient temperature (approximately 24 degrees Celsius). This is done in bags of 25-30kg of cherry.
5) Drying process: The cherries are moved to the same mechanical silo at 37 degrees Celsius until 15% moisture is reached.
6) Drying process2: The cherries are moved to a parabolic drying system until 10% moisture is reached.
Decaffeination Using Ethyl Acetate (EA)
The sugarcane process gets its name because ethyl acetate, or EA, is used to decaffeinate coffee. EA is a natural compound derived from cane sugar that can be found in fruits and other foods. Being derived from sugar, EA bonds to chlorogenic acids found in caffeine. When EA bonds to chlorogenic acids, the separation of the caffeine from the coffee bean begins.
Here's the step-by-step process:
- Coffee is delivered green and unroasted to be decaffeinated.
- It's steamed for 30 minutes before the decaffeination process starts. The steaming process is low-pressure, so the pores of the coffee can be opened, allowing for the extraction of the caffeine.
- Once the coffee is ready, it's placed and submerged into the EA solution for a specific amount of time. During this time, the EA bonds to the chlorogenic acid and separates the caffeine from the rest of the coffee bean.
- Beans reach a level of saturation that requires the tank to be emptied and refilled with fresh solution. This process repeats and continues for about eight hours or until the coffee has been sufficiently decaffeinated.
- Once all the caffeine is removed, the beans are prepped to be steamed again. This second steaming removes all traces of EA.
- Once the decaf coffee is dried, it's polished to ensure it stays clean and then packaged and distributed.
If you have roasted coffee beans for a while, you can see the difference in unroasted beans right away. They're usually much darker than beans that have not undergone decaffeination. For our coffee purposes, we love the Sugarcane process because the EA used is derived from sugar cane, and it doesn't sacrifice the flavor of the coffee. It still showcases the hard work of producers, making it a product we are proud to offer to our customers.
