Decaf Before Death - Nogales - Fresa Kalo Decaf (100g)

Roasted to order and in small batches on Sundays

This might be one of the most unusual decafs we’ve released yet — and the most delicious!

Fresa Kalo is a Chiroso from Nogales, processed entirely at farm level using their hot-water decaffeination method before being reinfused with cascara tea and botanical extracts of hibiscus and strawberry.

The result is intensely fruit-forward while still retaining the clarity and delicacy we associate with Chiroso. Expect strawberry and raspberry, juicy watermelon and delicate florals, with a soft, gummy-like sweetness that lingers through the finish.

We haven’t come across another European roaster offering this particular Nogales lot yet, so this may well be its first appearance in Europe.

About the coffee

Producer: Nogales
Farm: Nogales – Carbonero
Region: Pitalito, Huila, Colombia
Variety: Chiroso
Process: Washed, Decaf with Cascara Tea & Botanicals
Altitude: 1,850 masl
Taste notes: Strawberry • Raspberry • Watermelon • Floral
Roast: Light
Direct trade with Nogales

The story behind the coffee

This Chiroso comes from Carbonero, a small lot at Nogales located at 1,850 metres above sea level and home to just 2,500 coffee trees. Its high elevation and cooler climate allow the cherries to mature slowly, encouraging the floral aromatics, vibrant acidity and delicate sweetness characteristic of the variety.

Chiroso is already an expressive variety, but Nogales have taken this lot in a particularly unusual direction.

Fresa Kalo was developed to explore how much sweetness, complexity and fruit character can be retained — and rebuilt — through decaffeination. After the caffeine is removed using hot water, the coffee is reinfused with cascara tea alongside food-grade aromatic extracts of hibiscus and strawberry.

The resulting cup is unapologetically fruit-driven: strawberry, raspberry and watermelon, delicate florals and the slightly chewy, gummy-like sweetness described by Nogales themselves.

The process

Coffee cherries are hand-picked at peak ripeness before being cleaned and mechanically sorted to remove floaters, underripe fruit and defects.

The cherries are then depulped. The pulp and mucilage are mechanically pressed to extract a coffee-cherry juice rich in sugars, pectins and fruit-derived compounds, which is preserved for later stages of the process.

The coffee is dried on traditional raised beds before being hulled at Nogales' own dry mill, producing green coffee ready for decaffeination.

Farm-level hot-water decaffeination

The green coffee is immersed in hot water for several hours. This is repeated twice, gradually extracting caffeine without the use of synthetic chemical solvents.

As some flavour compounds are inevitably removed alongside the caffeine, Nogales then uses a reinfusion stage to restore sweetness, body and aromatic complexity.

For Fresa Kalo, that reinfusion is particularly unusual.

The decaffeinated coffee spends approximately 24 hours immersed in a freshly prepared cascara tea extract. During this stage, food-grade botanical aromatic extracts of hibiscus and strawberry are incorporated into the infusion.

The beans absorb compounds from the cascara alongside the selected botanical aromatics, adding sweetness, aromatic complexity and greater definition to the final flavour profile. A fresh infusion is prepared for every lot.

Nogales states that the botanical extracts used are approved for human consumption in both the European Union and United States.

Controlled drying

After reinfusion, the coffee moves to Nogales' dedicated decaf drying station.

Decaffeinated green coffee is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in humidity and temperature, so it is dried on enclosed African raised beds in a purpose-built facility with controlled airflow.

Natural sunlight is used where possible, with dehumidification during periods of high humidity or limited sunshine. Drying takes approximately five days before the coffee is packed and stored under controlled conditions at the farm.

Roasted fresh, in small batches

We roast every coffee to order in small batches on Sundays before dispatching it fresh the following week.

Fresa Kalo sits at the experimental end of what decaf can be: distinctly Chiroso, unmistakably Nogales and bursting with red fruit. Strawberry and raspberry lead the cup, followed by juicy watermelon, delicate florals and that strange-but-delightful gummy sweetness.

It is not a subtle process, and it isn’t trying to be. It’s playful, intensely fruity and very different from almost any decaf we’ve tasted.

A note on appearance: decaffeination changes the structure and colour of green coffee, so the beans can look considerably darker on the outside after roasting than a caffeinated coffee roasted to the same level. This is still a light roast — exterior colour isn't a reliable indication of roast development with decaf.