| Varietal(s) | Bourbon, Mondo Novo hybrid |
|---|---|
| Processing | Full natural, Royal Select Water decaffeination |
Decaffeination asks a lot of a coffee. Caffeine sits alongside the compounds you actually taste and smell, and any process that removes it is going after the whole package. The useful question is which package each origin is built from, and whether that package survives the trip.
This one is built from cocoa, nut, and body. Those live deeper in the bean than the florals do, which is why a natural Brazil tends to come through decaffeination with more of itself intact than a delicate, high-altitude coffee would.
The coffee starts in Mogiana, the strip of southern Brazil that runs along the border of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. Producers there grow Bourbon and a Mundo Novo hybrid between 800 and 1,200 meters. The cherry is dried whole, on patios and in mechanical dryers — that is what full natural means: the fruit dries around the seed, and the sugars in that fruit become part of the coffee.
Royal selects the lots that go into this decaf based on cup profile and physical preparation, and on how they express after decaffeination. The water process then runs: the green coffee is pre-soaked, introduced to a solution of concentrated coffee solubles, and the caffeine migrates out through osmosis while the flavor compounds stay. The coffee is re-dried and re-bagged, and the extract is filtered and recycled. No solvent touches this coffee.
Brazilian coffee from Mogiana is typically sweet, nutty, and low in acidity, with the body to carry those flavors. Natural lots in particular tend to sit closer to cocoa and dried fruit than to citrus.
When we roast this, we taste peanut butter, cola, rye bread, and cocoa. Peanut butter comes first and is not a thin suggestion of one; cola sweetness sits underneath, then the darker, bready note of rye, with cocoa on the finish.
We Roast It This Way
We roast it this way: to a Medium Dark roast. This is a specialty-grade green coffee. We recommend targeting 400–420°F charge temperature and aiming for City+ to Full City for a balanced cup that honours the origin character. First crack typically appears around 385–395°F (varies by roaster type and drum speed). Development time: 1:00–1:45 after first crack.
