The GRAPOS organisation was founded in 2007, made up of 90 coffee producers.  Today that number has expanded to over 2000+.  The organisation provides the necessary guidance for producers in the region to grow high quality coffee.  This includes offering technical assistance, providing free seedlings to replace damaged trees and other educational programmes.

There are 8 collection centres throughout the Chiapas region making it more accessible for remote coffee producers to deliver their cherries to the mill.  The GRAPOS organisation has helped these producers increase their yield and quality, leading to an increase in the producer’s overall income.  In turn, this has allowed funds to be invested in the coffee farms and creates a future for coffee production in this region.

This particular coffee has been decaffeinated using the CO2 method.  The green coffee is moistened with water before being put into a vessel where it comes into contact with pressurised, liquid carbon dioxide.  As carbon dioxide is circulated through the coffee caffeine is drawn out of the bean.  In an evaporator, the caffeine precipitates out from the CO2 which is then pumped back in to the vessel.  When the required residual caffeine level is reached, the coffee is discharged into a drier and gently dried until reaching its original moisture content.  Using this method ensures that the compounds responsible for the flavour of the beans are essentially left intact.