The coffee at Santa Elena is grown at altitudes between 4300-5000 feet in dolomite rich volcanic soil and with the perfect combination of sun and rain. Harvest time is between the months of November to February, during the Cost Rican summer. Only the ripe coffee cherries are hand picked and processed in Santa Elena’s own beneficio (coffee mill).

This fantastic coffee lends lush, heavily fruited notes of black cherry and subtle hints of raisin. It is rich in complexity and body and it has a pleasant brightness that is balanced by a buttery sweetness.

This Costa Rican coffee has been decaffeinated by the most environmentally friendly method of decaffeination that exists, know as the Swiss Water process. This process begins with a batch of green (unroasted) coffee beans that is soaked in hot water to release the caffeine. After all of the caffeine and coffee solids are released into the water, the beans are discarded and the water is passed through a carbon filter that traps caffeine but lets the coffee solids pass through. The resulting solution is called ‘green coffee extract’ (GCE). A new batch of green coffee is introduced to the GCE solution and since the GCE is coffee solids without caffeine, only the caffeine diffuses from the new beans. The processed GCE solution is passed again through carbon filter, which captures the caffeine. The process is repeated, filtering out all the caffeine until the beans are 99.9% caffeine-free. The green coffee beans are removed from the water and dried, thus retaining most if not all of their original origin characteristics and flavors.

For more reading on the process visit: swisswater.com