Ethica Decaf - Colombia Cauca EA Sugarcane

About the Coffee

Cauca sits in Colombia's southwest, a department shaped by Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and smallholder farming communities. Plots here are small, and farmers grow varieties like Castillo, Caturra, and Colombia at elevations around 2,100 meters. That altitude slows the development of the coffee cherry, which tends to concentrate flavor in the bean before it's harvested.

This coffee is decaffeinated using the EA sugarcane process, which is one of the cleaner methods available. It starts with fermented sugarcane molasses, which is used to produce ethanol. That ethanol is combined with acetic acid to form ethyl acetate (EA), a naturally occurring compound also found in fruit, wine, and beer. Green beans are steamed to open up their structure, then washed with EA to draw out the caffeine. The EA itself has a mild, sweet aroma and leaves no meaningful residue in the finished coffee. Sugarcane is a locally abundant crop in Colombia, which makes the process a practical fit for the region.

Ethica roasts this coffee to work as both a filter brew and an espresso, so it's flexible depending on how you like to make coffee at home. The two-week rest period after roasting gives the coffee time to settle before it's at its best.

About Ethica Coffee Roasters

Ethica Coffee Roasters is based in Vancouver, BC. The name comes from Spinoza's Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata, a philosophical text about aligning actions with reason and virtue. That's not just branding: the name reflects how Ethica approaches sourcing, with a focus on ethical partnerships and transparency about where their coffee comes from and who grew it.

Their sourcing philosophy centers on specialty-grade green beans and telling the stories of the farmers behind them. Roasting and brewing are treated as extensions of that same care rather than separate concerns.

"There is an Ethica coffee that stands out in my mind - a Washed Castillo from Wilton Benitez that had rosemary as a tasting note. Yes, rosemary. I remember looking at that tasting note in disbelief, and then experiencing about the same disbelief by how much I loved the rosemary flavour!"

- Dean, Director of Coffee