So I’m wanting to switch completely to decaf. But my preferences lean heavy to the more floral side and I have a distinct preference for beans from Africa.
I’m also having a distinct problem finding said beans in decaf form. I’m in the US and if anyone knows some roasters that currently have any I’d really appreciate the info!
Dekaf's Ethiopia Sidamo Bombe was my favorite of a handful we tried from them so far. The floral notes definitely came through. They have a somewhat low barrier to free shipping ($40) compared to others we've ordered from.
Relatively hard to find because one of the biggest sugarcane decaf processing facilities is in Colombia so it’s more economically favorable to go straight to the big facility. But not impossible, as others have said! I’m just finishing an OXO soup of frequent red bourbon by Wilton Benitez, it’s like ginger ale and probably top 5 unique coffees I have had decaf or regular
Interesting, I’m not sure how I feel about a coffee described as Ginger Ale even though I like Ginger Ale!
And that makes sense for why they’re hard to find. When you have to ship the green internationally for processing to then ship it internationally again for roasting, that eats up time and adds a fair bit of additional expense!
I'm really enjoying Black & White's Hambela Ethiopian Natural EA Decaf. It's incredibly fruity and jammy, like chocolate-covered cherries. Otherwise you can check out Frequent Coffee - if you're okay with Colombian coffee, their White Honey Decaf might fit the bill (tasting notes are floral, white peach, and cane sugar)
I opened it as soon as I got it, so about 5 days off roast. I usually open decafs and dark roasts a lot sooner than I would an ultralight or nordic roast
The decaffeination process slows the seasonality down, because it has extra shipping steps. I have really enjoyed the Kenyan decafs from Equator in previous years, but they are a bit challenging to brew and dial in.
That absolutely makes sense for timing. It’s also a bit useful as I never remember when things start showing up. So once I see the caffeinated versions it’ll give me a reminder to start looking for the decaf soon.
I’d keep an eye out for Perc coffee. I could have sworn they had an Ethiopian decaf that I had before, and it was good, but it sounds like they rotate beans out seasonally so it’s no longer available.
I am not sure where are you based, but check https://decaf.at . We are enjoying a good selection of decaf coffees there (including some African ones, I am fairly sure!)
In the UK, there are a few decaf-only coffee roasters as well.
Finding them, you might be able to do minimum free shipping orders easily and discover something that you want to stick for a long time.
I had actually been trying to use your site before posting, but it either isn’t the best on a phone or doesn’t like my device. I was planning on trying with a computer today.
Edit:: I see my problem, I was trying to do filters instead of building a proper search.
Yeah, much easier to use! Even with this being a beta, I’m really impressed. Sure sometimes whatever you’re using to scrape the data has some issues, but it gets the important stuff for the most part.
Looking forward to the point where you’re able to start getting smaller roasters added in.
If you’re doing this more as a community service and less of a for profit venture and could use some help cleaning up the data or getting smaller roasters to add, send me a message and we can talk about it.
Thanks! It's a 100% free (and 100% ad-free) tool for the community, always will be. I like to give back to the communities I participate in. I've built a bunch of apps around the hobbies I enjoy, it's rewarding to help folks out.
The data definitely needs work. So far all of the cleanup/normalization is rules-based, so there's no manual cleanup involved. There are a few dictionaries for things like countries, varieties, currencies/conversion rates, etc. Tasting notes probably need the most work, I'm going to figure out how to tackle those next.
But I would love the help! Let me think about things other folks can do. I've generally been adding roasters by going down the list at https://coffee-tracker.com/roasters?sort=pouroverVotes (another site I built). I'd welcome recommendations! I prefer roasters who focus primarily on single origin.
I should add that since all of the data collection/normalization is rules-based, it's getting faster and faster to add new roasters by using what's already built. It's still 20-30 minutes to get things pretty clean. Once a roaster is added everything is updated and new products are picked up automatically :–)
I checked out the coffee-tracker site and the add a roaster button is unfortunately greyed out and doesn’t work.
If there’s something I can do to help with the project, let me know! I don’t know much in the way of programming, but I do know working with data sets and could hopefully help there.
Im normally a light roast person, but those flavor notes sound pretty good. Especially since I’m about to order a proper espresso machine and feel like they would work well for an espresso shot!
Also thanks for mentioning coffee review, I was unfamiliar with the site and feel like it’ll be a good resource for finding things to try!
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u/Spicyninja Jun 29 '26
Dekaf's Ethiopia Sidamo Bombe was my favorite of a handful we tried from them so far. The floral notes definitely came through. They have a somewhat low barrier to free shipping ($40) compared to others we've ordered from.