Wide Awake · Brussels
Colombia El Carmen — After Hours
“Juicier than I expected from a decaf, and it didn't stop when I swallowed.”
- Origin
- Colombia, Acevedo, Huila
- Producer
- El Carmen farmer association
- Varietal
- Caturra · 1800 masl
- Processing
- washed
- Price
- €14 / 250 g · €5.60/100g
Wide Awake promise vanilla sweetness and mild acidity, and say it works for espresso and filter. I went with filter, in the Moccamaster. The sweetness is definitely there, but the fruit is what jumped out at me first, and there’s more of it than the bag lets on. Of the four notes on the label, cherry is the one I’d point at. The finish just keeps going, which decafs usually don’t do, and there’s proper body to it. It doesn’t taste thin, which is normally my first complaint with decaf.
This was also my first bag with Volvic instead of Spa Reine, so some of that might be the water. Hard to say after one bag.
It’s a washed lot from the El Carmen association, about 60 smallholders near Acevedo in southern Huila, decaffeinated with sugarcane EA. Wide Awake have been buying their decaf from them every year since 2020, which is longer than they’ve worked with anyone else.
Brew rig
- Brewer
- Moccamaster
- Grinder
- DF64, setting ~80
- Dose · ratio
- 30 g · 1:15
- Water
- Volvic — ~60 ppm total hardness, ~60 ppm alkalinity as CaCO₃ · 94 °C
- Roasted
- Tasted
- · 30 d off roast
30 g in, 450 ml water. Switched from Spa Reine to Volvic for this one. 94 °C is the middle of the Moccamaster's stated 92–96 °C range rather than a measured brew temperature.
Where this comes from
Drinks both regular coffee and decaf, brews at home, not a professional taster. Every tasting note lists the recipe so you can calibrate against your own palate.