Cupping is something that we do daily at Caravan Coffee, to keep our roasting and brewing standards both high and consistent. Our worst case scenario is to drink a great coffee this week and then be disappointed by the same coffee next week. Sadly, for many coffee roasters this balance in art and science can be a great challenge.

In this vein, we are always looking for potential new coffees; both regular and decaf. Perhaps to see if something better exists, or to recognize when the annual harvest changes. In the case of our decaf, the crop did change in 2019. In our desire to keep standards high, we tested five different decaf coffees to determine which would meet our standards. 

The result in your cup today is a new and improved Northstar Blend. Before choosing this, we ensured our choice with a table competition. By placing all new (and old) decaf coffees on the cupping table, our staff thoroughly examined each for fragrance, aroma, acidity, body, sweetness, cleanness and all other attributes measured. In our scientific group approach, even our key leaders and roasters did not know which coffee was which.

We cupped these coffees, at different times in the lab, to keep safe under Cov19 controls. We tallied results on a spreadsheet and I (Paul Allen, the author) correlated them. One of the five stood out as outstanding among the others.

What was this new and improved coffee we chose for our Northstar blend? I rang our distributor. They said that they had so many good coffees and not enough time. So they did an experiment and put these excellent decaf coffees on the table, and even mixed a few for fun. So what started out as a “just for fun” experiment, became the “wow” coffee on the table.

This new Northstar Decaf Blend is still decaffeinated by the Swiss Water Process, which uses water and reverse osmosis to create a coffee that’s 99.9 percent caffeine-free. And, even more it is both Fair Trade and Organic certified! We couldn’t be happier and we know you’ll love the new Northstar with Cocoa, Sweet Spices and Amaretto tasting notes.

If compared with the old Northstar this is even more complex grabbing the amaretto dark cherry or black grape notes of sweetness. We’re sure you’ll love it!

Click here for $2 off your next bag of Northstar & Decaf Honduras Coffees (yes you can share with a friend : )

Or use the code "greatdecaf" when checking out!

* Offer valid through August 31, 2020 on 12oz bags.
* No limit with code "greatdecaf" applicable to Honduras & Northstar!

~ article contributed by Paul Allen, Head of Roasting & QC.