Half-Caf PBJ

About the Coffee

This coffee comes from two producers in Cerrado Mineiro, Brazil: Marcelo Assis and Flavio Silva, farming at Finca Olhos D'agua between 1,206 and 1,800 meters. Cerrado Mineiro is a defined origin in Minas Gerais state, known for its well-marked dry seasons, which make it easier to control the drying process after harvest. The lot uses three varietals: Castillo, Paraiso, and Colombia.

The processing here is a layered one. It starts as a pulped natural, meaning the coffee cherry's outer skin is removed but some of the fruit mucilage is left on the bean during drying. From there, it goes through a co-fermentation with banana and ethyl acetate (a naturally occurring compound also used in decaffeination, which gently removes about half the caffeine without the use of harsh chemicals). The result is a half-caf coffee that gets its character from both the fruit contact during processing and the added banana fermentation, not from flavoring.

The combination of decaffeination and co-fermentation in a single lot is relatively uncommon. Traffic sourced this as a finished half-caf product, meaning the caffeine reduction and fermentation happened at the farm level before the coffee was roasted.

About Traffic Coffee

Traffic Coffee was founded by Greg Lancot and Jessie Lewin in Montreal. The two started the roastery out of a shared interest in coffees that were worth paying attention to, whether that meant letting a well-grown natural bourbon speak for itself or leaning into more experimental processing like co-ferments. The branding is deliberately bold and unconventional, each bag with its own distinct illustration, but the sourcing is straightforward: small-batch roasting and green coffee they stand behind.

Traffic tends to work at the edges of what processed coffees can do. When they find something unusual, like a co-fermented half-caf from Brazil, they run with it.

"Traffic's breadth of coffee is remarkable - from dark roasts reminiscent of your grandmother's kitchen, to wild co-ferments with tasting notes we admittedly have to look up. The packaging and the coffee inside is meant to captivate you, and I hope you feel the same when you try this coffee."

- Dean, Director of Coffee