In Primavera, the much beloved flavors of Atitlan and Chimaltenango are blended and then preserved using the natural Swiss Water decaffeination process.

Young consumers are driving decaf’s resurgence and, like their caffeine-drinking peers, they’re expecting specialty coffees and often traceability and certified. With more than 50% of the world’s population under 30, the demand for decaffeinated coffee – and the need for specialty decaf that tastes good and meets ethical or environmental standards – is rising.

Swiss Water offers an alternative to consumers concerned by methyl chloride (MC) and ethyl acetate (EA) processes. Because water processing does not use added chemical compounds, coffees can maintain organic certifications and customers can be assured by the absence of additional chemicals.

The process of decaffeination begins with pure water and ends with amazing coffee that is 99.9% caffeine free. The difficulty to decaffeination is that many of the flavor compounds that give coffee it excellent taste are, like caffeine, water soluble. Thus, any decaffeination method needs to single out and remove the caffeine molecule, while preserving as many of the flavor compounds as possible.

This Yellow Catuai Pulped Natural lot for its classic profile with soft acidity, yellow fruit, chocolate and a good body comes from Sao Francisco de Bela Vista.

Tarcízio Aldo Zugliani bought Fazenda Sao Francisco da Bela Vista in 1993. Over the years, he has made big improvements to the infrastructure of the farm. He built coffee drying terraces and invested in better processing equipment and rotary dryers. He replanted the farm with young seedlings to increase productivity and quality. Through soil analysis, he also determined specific coffee farming methods and improved input efficacy.

All these steps increased overall quality and helped produce this Yellow Catuai Pulped Natural lot, which has a classic cupping profile with soft acidity, yellow fruits, chocolate and a good body.

Gahahe washing station is located in Kayanza province. The washing station lies at 1,805 meters above sea level. It's equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 4 cherry selection tables, 2 soaking tanks and a drying field with 180 drying tables and 18 pre-drying tables. The station can process up to 750 metric tons of cherry per season.

The washing station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects including a livestock rearing project and a range of Farmer Hub projects centered on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.

With Ikizere women’s group, Baho Coffee Company brought together 60 single mothers to cultivate coffee to help them succeed financially and personally. They’ve been so successful that married women have started asking to join their group. Their coffee is clean and sweet with tropical fruit, berries and stone fruit.

Being a single mother in patriarchal society like Rwanda is quite challenging and they frequently face a lot of stigma, isolation and depression. In order to support single mothers, Baho Coffee Company initiated a solidarity group where single mothers could join together over coffee farming and also find friendship and hope. The women chose the name “Ikizere” for their group because it means “hope” in Kinyarwanda and that is what they felt the group represented.

Ikizere women’s group meets regularly to share their experiences, learn from each other and their successes. Baho supports the women with training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), coffee cultivation and high-quality processing. Baho also provides training in other skills including financial literacy, weaving and animal husbandry to help women diversify their income and be successful.

Through Baho, Ikizere members receive good prices for their cherry and are able to market their coffee as women-produced, which adds value for growers and roasters alike. Members receive price premiums for their high-quality coffee and their women-produced status. The women also receive health care and short- term loans for family needs and Baho helped build a source of clean drinking water in their community that everyone can access..

Ikizere has become so successful, that married women are now requesting to join the group so that they can access the benefits the single mothers in the group now have. Ikizere’s single mothers have chosen to share their successes and have welcomed other women into their group