Ratnagiri Estate SWP

The name Ratnagiri means “pearl mountains.” It alludes to the dense silver oak trees populating the hillside in and around Ratnagiri Estate. The oaks provide shade for coffee.

Ashok Patre is the latest in a long line of Patres to own and operate Ratnagiri Estate. Begun in 1927, the Patre family has been focused on producing coffee at Ratnagiri estate for nearly 100 years.  In 2000, Ashok began investing in modern agricultural technology and focusing on specialty coffee production. He continues to expand the capabilities and increase quality at Ratnagiri Estate each year.

In addition to improving coffee quality, Ashok is also focused on protecting the environment. He uses organic fertilizer and compost to fertilize trees. Coffee trees grow under 50% shade cover, which he believes is the best way to minimize fungal infections while improving coffee quality.

The farm is fed by 2 freshwater streams. Ashok has implemented a strict protocol for processing wastewater before releasing it back into the environment.

Workers handpick ripe, red cherry and deliver it to the on-site processing mill. Throughout processing, each lot is kept separate with a label that includes the lot number, plot name, date and processing method.

At intake, cherry is pulped on an Ecopulper that has reduced water use by 65%. Then, coffee is placed in tiled tanks and fermented for 12 hours. Following fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and then laid on parabolic dryers. Workers rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 22 days for parchment to dry. Parchment is milled at Ratnagiri’s dry mill.

Young consumers are driving decaf’s resurgence and, like their caffeine-drinking peers, they’re expecting high-quality coffees that are often traceable and certified. With more than 50% of the world’s population under 30, the demand for decaffeinated coffee – and the need for specialty decaf that tastes good and meets ethical or environmental standards – is rising.

Swiss Water offers an alternative to consumers concerned by methyl chloride (MC) and ethyl acetate (EA) processes. Because water processing does not use added chemical compounds, coffees can maintain organic certifications and customers can be assured of the absence of additional chemicals.

The difficulty of decaffeination is that many of the flavor compounds that give coffee its excellent taste are, like caffeine, water-soluble. Thus, any decaffeination method needs to effectively single out and remove the caffeine molecule while preserving as many of the flavor compounds as possible.

The process begins with a batch of green coffee beans that are soaked in water to remove the caffeine. In water, many of the flavor compounds are also removed as well, but don’t worry! This is intentional and will preserve help flavor in the future.

This first batch of beans are then discarded. This process only needs to happen once because the mixture produced by soaking those beans, called green coffee extract (GCE), can be maintained and reused to decaffeinate many batches of green beans.

The principle behind water processing is that water can only absorb a set amount of flavor compounds and caffeine before it is completely saturated. When water is fully saturated, it cannot accept (and remove) any more flavor compounds, even if they’re in the coffee. That first batch of beans created a fully saturated water mixture, the GCE. In order to process the beans for decaffeination, the GCE is run through a filter to remove only the caffeine.

Now the GCE is fully saturated except for caffeine. When a new batch of green beans are placed in the GCE, the only compound from the new beans that will be accepted into the GCE is caffeine, everything else will remain in the beans because the GCE is already saturated with those chemicals and unable to ‘take’ anymore.

SWP decaf composition varies from lot to lot, but SWP does provide traceability info. Please reach out to [email protected] if you need any help tracing your lot.

SLN6 was created at the Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI) in India. SLN stands for “selection". It came from a cross between Kent and Robusta. The offspring of that match was then crossed again with Kent. The CCRI gave SLN6 seedlings to Indian farmers in the 1970s. Seedlings were also shared with Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda in 2010. SLN6 is prized for its high yield and superb quality potential. It also begins yielding cherry in the second year, rather than the third, which is more common. It is moderately resistant to Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) and Coffee Berry Disease (CBD). 

SLN9 is a hybrid of an Ethiopian variety, Tafarikela, and Timor. SLN stands for “selection”. The variety is marked by tall trees with drooping branches and dark brown leaves. The Timor parent provides adaption for drought-like conditions while Tafarikela gives it an excellent cup quality. In 2002, an SLN9 lot won the Fine Cup Award at the Flavor of India competition.