200 Degrees’ Mellowship Slinky Decaf blend is all about the mountain water.
Decaf sometimes gets a bad press; some people just can’t accept that coffee without the caffeine still kicks in its own way. But there are also a lot of decafs out there that are created in nasty chemical plants using chlorine, and that can leave a bitter taste in the mouth.
These days there are other, nicer and more photogenic ways to extract caffeine from coffee beans. We assessed and tasted decaffeinated beans from all over the world before deciding on a Mexican source of Mountain Water Method Decaffeinated beans.
The green beans are picked at the farms in Mexico, bought through Fairtrade agreements, and transported to their local decaffeination processing plant. Here, the caffeine is extracted by a long soak in clean, pure water from glaciers up in the Citlaltepetl Mountains (this water then goes through a very clever filtration process to separate the caffeine, allowing it to be sold on to soft drinks manufacturers). This type of process retains virtually all of the aromatic oils that give coffee its taste, without imparting any new, unwanted flavours.
The mountain water process produces an ethically and environmentally considerate bean with a beautiful, clean coffee taste that’s 96% caffeine free, and if that doesn’t make you feel pure, nothing will.