Colombia - El Vergel Condor Decaf 2026

About the Coffee

The Bayter family started farming at El Vergel Estate in 1995, with avocado as their main crop. When avocado prices dropped in 2006, they shifted toward coffee, planting catimor, red caturra, and yellow caturra. In 2016, guided by Miguel Jimenez, they moved into specialty coffee varieties, and by 2018 had built a full processing program centered on fermentation control, including a Koji fermentation technique.

In 2017, Martha Montenegro, Elías, and Shady Bayter started looking for ways to connect more directly with international buyers and add more value to their coffees. That work led to the founding of Forest Coffee in 2019, which now spans 250 coffee-growing families across four projects in Colombia, with a focus on processing innovation, education, and direct trade relationships.

This lot is a washed EA decaf (ethyl acetate decaf). After fermentation to develop flavor, the beans go through caffeine extraction using circular containers filled with water and ethyl acetate, a compound derived from sugarcane. The EA bonds with caffeine and pulls it out while leaving flavor compounds intact, bringing caffeine levels down to 0.1%.