ZZ - Decaf

About the Coffee

This decaf comes from Huehuetenango, Guatemala, a region known for high elevation farms tucked against the Cuchumatanes mountains. Growers here often work small plots between 1,500 and 2,000 meters, where cooler temperatures slow down cherry development and give the beans more time to build sugar and density.

Decaffeination happens through the Swiss Water Process, a method that strips caffeine using only water, temperature, and time, no chemical solvents involved. Green coffee sits in a solution of water saturated with the coffee's own soluble compounds. Caffeine moves out of the beans and into the solution, while flavor compounds stay put since the water is already full of them. The result is coffee that's 99.9% caffeine-free without changing much about how it tastes.

Guatemalan coffee has long relied on smallholder farmers who sell cherry to local mills for processing. Huehuetenango's isolation from major roads has historically kept farms smaller and harder to mechanize, so a lot of the work, picking, sorting, drying, still happens by hand.

About Library Coffee

The Library Specialty Coffee started in Toronto, founded by Jeffrey Ji, who spent time living in Melbourne before opening the cafe. That background shows up directly in the space: Ji modeled details of the shop after Australian cafes he knew well, right down to replicating tiling from a well known Melbourne cafe near the entrance.

The cafe built its name around pour over service, treating it as a slow, deliberate process rather than a quick transaction. Beans are weighed and ground to order, water is heated and poured on a timer, and the whole thing happens at a dedicated station where customers can see it unfold step by step.

Library Coffee has been on my radar for a while, mostly because of how much attention they put into the pour over ritual itself. It's rare to find a shop willing to slow down and treat brewing as something worth watching, not just waiting for. That same care is what convinced me their decaf was worth bringing into the club. - Dean, Director of Coffee

"The Library is a newer Toronto coffee roaster I stumbled across earlier this summer. I first tried Library coffee from a lever-powered espresso machine at Blue Cat Padel. Their lighter roasts can compete among the best in Toronto: very clean, balanced, and fruity."

- Dean, Director of Coffee