Lights Out Decaf

About the Coffee

This decaf comes from a group of smallholder producers in the Garzón region of Huila, Colombia. Huila sits in the southern Andes and is one of Colombia's most consistently high-quality coffee-growing areas, with farms typically sitting between 1,500 and 2,000 meters. The Garzón region specifically is known for its rich soils and good growing conditions for washed and honey-processed coffees.

After harvest, the green coffee traveled to a decaffeination facility in Colombia, where it went through ethyl acetate (EA) processing. EA decaffeination uses a solvent derived from sugarcane to remove caffeine. The beans are steamed to open their pores, soaked in the EA solution to draw out the caffeine, then steamed again to remove any remaining solvent before drying. Because the solvent comes from sugarcane and the process happens at relatively low temperatures, it tends to preserve the coffee's original character better than some older decaffeination methods. It also keeps the whole process within Colombia, closer to where the coffee was grown.

Phil and Sebastian selected this particular lot before decaffeination, tasting it first as a regular green coffee. That step matters because the quality of a decaf starts with the quality of the raw coffee going in. EA decaf works best when the starting material is already good.

About Phil & Sebastian

Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb co-founded Phil & Sebastian in Calgary in 2007. Phil came in with an engineering background and applied it directly to the roasting operation, designing their roasting equipment and writing software that runs everything from order management to quality control. Sebastian focused on the cafe side of the business and handles green coffee buying in Central and South America, while Phil travels to Africa for sourcing. Both were building the company while developing their buying relationships directly at origin from early on.

Their sourcing approach is built around paying above the industry average for green coffee and staying closely involved with producing partners over time, including investing in projects at the farm level. The goal is to keep quality high on both ends of the supply chain, not just at the roaster.

"Phil & Sebastian is a favourite of mine from my time in Calgary. My wife swore by their "Hartmann Honey" beans, and we stocked it (or, maybe "hoarded" is a better word) for as long as they sold it. It feels like a 'full circle' moment to finally have them in our rotation."

- Dean, Director of Coffee