Honduras Marcala DLF Honey Decaf Organic
Our first direct trade decaf is a 1st place winner in the Golden Bean North America competition in the Decaf category! All the credit goes to De La Finca - the producer and importer of this organic, honey processed micro lot. It's balanced, clean and delightfully sweet with notes of peaches, marshmallow, pecans and dates.
Folks, get ready for another TCC first! This is our FIRST EVER Direct Trade Decaf! It’s also, organic, Smithsonian bird friendly AND honey processed. It won 1st place in the Gold Bean North America’s Decaf category. Wow! *Pause for applause* You’re right, this IS an impressive feat! One we owe solely to our good friends over at De La Finca Coffee. And we’re so honored to share their accomplishment with you!
This might come as a surprise, but choosing to have a portion of your coffee harvest decaffeinated is a very risky business decision. It’s expensive, it’s time consuming and it caters to a very small portion of coffee buyers. That’s why most producers only commit their mid to bottom tier beans to decaffeination, stuff they would have had to sell super cheap anyways. But not De La Finca. They pulled from their best beans and kicked it up a notch with careful honey processing determined to create a decaf worthy of the DLF Marcala name. In fact, when this coffee arrived at Descamex’s Mountain Water Decaf facility, they thought there had been a mistake and they had been sent the wrong coffee! Nope, that’s the bean alright. And it went on to take 1st place in Gold Bean North America’s decaf competition!
And lemme tell ya, it’s taken the top slot for our decaf favorite around the warehouse. We always try to keep a decaf roasted up on hand, you know, in case we feel like sleeping later on in the evening, and this one is new regular. The cup is incredibly clean, balanced and delightfully sweet, without being over the top sweet. The body is nice and full with a creamy texture that works great hot or iced. When we cupped it hot, the very first note I got was peaches and cream along with dried fruit which my better half identified as dates. She also detected marshmallow and as the cup cooled we both noted a lovely roasted pecan note on the finish.
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: June, 2024; Harvest Year: 2024
Acidity & Brightness: Moderately bright and sweet
Balance & Finish: Balanced with a crisp clean finish
Body & Texture: Full body and creamy texture
Flavors: Peaches, marshmallow, pecan and dates
Grade:
Certifications: USDA Organic, Smithsonian Bird Friendly
Processing: Honey-processed & Mountain Water Process (MWP) decaffeination
Grower: De La Finca | DLF Honduras
Region: Marcala, Honduras
Varieties: Catuai, Bourbon, IH90
Recommended Roast Range: City+ to Full City+ (light-medium to medium-dark)
Start with a Full City (Medium), or between the end of 1st crack and the beginning of 2nd crack. Feel free to take it darker to bring out a bit more of a toasted marshmallow note along with some deep chocolate tones and a bit more body. Lighter roasts will feature more fruity sweetness along with a helping of bright citrus. This coffee roasts very evenly, but like most decafs, the roast tends to accelerate quickly, so pay close attention.
De La Finca Coffee - “During the pandemic, we decided to look for areas we could innovate.
Enter → our honey decaf.
Typically, only lower scoring, washed process coffees are what are sent to be decaffeinated—because why would anyone want to decaffeinate a good coffee, right?
With a recent rise in popularity of decaf coffees, we decided to profile a particular honey process (higher quality processing method) coffee from a collective of farmers in the Marcala region then we sent it to Descamex in Vera Cruz, Mexico where it was organically decaffeinated using pure water from Pico de Orizaba (without use of chemicals).
At first, Descamex thought it was a defect coffee. They said it had turned out badly (they were used to tasting lower quality, decaffeinated coffees). We were surprised... so Nelson flew down to Vera Cruz himself to try the outcome of our experiment... when he arrived, low and behold, the coffee was actually REALLY good. It was so good, in fact, that it almost didn't taste like decaf!
We started bringing in this coffee in 2020 and it's been sold out 2 years in a row now. There are very limited quantities available because it's in such a popular coffee across the country.
While we were always confident it was an excellent decaf, we just weren't sure how it would hold up in competition until it took 1st Place in the Golden Bean North America for the Decaf Category.
