Lights Out Decaf

About the Coffee

This decaf comes from a group of smallholder producers in the Garzón region of Huila, Colombia. Huila is one of Colombia's most productive coffee-growing departments, sitting in the southern Andes where the Magdalena River valley creates the elevation and climate that Arabica coffee needs. Garzón sits within this area and has built a reputation for producing sweet, full-bodied lots.

Phil & Sebastian sourced this coffee as green (unroasted) beans and had it decaffeinated in Colombia using the ethyl acetate (EA) method, also called sugarcane decaf. The process works by steaming the green coffee to open its pores, then soaking it in ethyl acetate, a solvent derived from fermented sugarcane, to draw out the caffeine. The beans are steamed again to remove any remaining solvent before drying. Because the solvent comes from sugarcane rather than synthetic sources, the process is considered a cleaner and more sustainable option compared to older chemical decaffeination methods. It also tends to leave the coffee's original character intact better than most alternatives.

Phil & Sebastian chose this particular lot because it was already tasting chocolatey, round, and sweet before decaffeination. The EA process was applied in-country in Colombia, keeping the supply chain shorter and the carbon footprint lower than shipping green coffee elsewhere for processing. The finished coffee is roasted to work both as a filter brew and as espresso.

About Phil & Sebastian

Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb co-founded Phil & Sebastian in Calgary, Alberta in 2007. Phil came from an engineering background and applied it directly to the roasting operation, designing their own roasting machine and writing custom software that runs everything from order fulfillment to coffee menus. Sebastian brought a focus on the business and cafe side, along with green coffee buying in Central and South America. Both founders travel to origin to buy coffee directly, with Phil handling sourcing in Africa and Sebastian covering Latin America.

Phil & Sebastian pay above the industry average for their green coffee and invest in projects at origin with their producing partners. On the roasting side, Phil's engineering background means quality control is built into the process rather than checked at the end. They openly describe their goal as raising the bar not just against large coffee chains, but against other specialty roasters globally, including holding their own past work to the same scrutiny. For a Calgary-based operation, that's an unusually specific and ambitious target to set publicly.

"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