Swiss Water® Decaffeinated Colombia

SWISS WATER®

Swiss Water® Decaffeinated uses a technique where fresh water is alone used to remove the caffeine from the coffee beans, and the caffeine is removed from the caffeine laden water by percolating it through activated charcoal. The beans are returned to their (caffeine removed) water bath where they reabsorb the coffee’s flavor constituents from the water.

First developed by Coffex S.A. in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in 1933, and originally introduced to North America, by Gillies, in 1982. Coffex sold the product under the unfortunate brand name of Secofex. It was not long before Gillies, and the American coffee companies, who followed our lead, started calling their Coffex product alternately, Water Decaffeinated, Swiss Process Decaffeinated, and Natural Water Decaffeinated. Jacobs-Souchard, a later parent of Coffee S.A. introduced the product formally to North America, manufactured in a new plant built in Burnaby, British Colombia, Canada as Swiss Water® Decaffeinated, in 1988. Klaus Johann Jacobs charged project manager, Don MacDonald, to ask Gillies’, Donald Schoenholt, to consult on the project, which Donald did as a courtesy, without fee, to help Swiss Water® find a wider audience in North America.

Swiss Water Decaffeinated is now manufactured exclusively in North America by Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc, www.swisswater.com , and Gillies has been a Swiss Water Roaster for 40 year.



COLOMBIA

The favorite quaff of Juan Valdez®. Folks always comment that Gillies 100% Colombian tastes as no other. We know why. Gillies 100% Colombian tastes as good as it does because it is a top grade pure Colombian coffee, from Medellin, chosen by folks who have been honoring Colombia's coffee since old Juan was just a glint in his father's eye.

Colombia is the largest producer of washed Arabica coffee. She produces about 12.5 million 70 Kg bags (about 231-million LB) yearly, and about half of that production finds its way to the US, where specialty roasters take the pick of the crop, and the run-of-the-mill is roasted and sold by large commercial roasters. US political administrative units are "States". In Colombia they are “Departments,” and Medellín is the capital of the Colombian Department of Antioquia, in the midst of the Colombian Andes, about 265 miles Northwest of the national capitol of Bogota,. It's the nation’s second largest city, and the place where coffee was first introduced to Colombia around 1808 from the French Antilles (possibly Martinique) via Venezuela. Antioquia continues today as the country’s most important growing region. Coffees from Antioquia are known for their medium body, and cup profiles that are typically not as sharp or winey as others of Colombia, rather they are smooth, and well-balanced, with the cocoa finish that is distinctive of the great Colombias.

Gillies Standard Decaffeinated Roast™. – dns, coffeeman