Ethiopia Gugi (Decaf) – Talking Crow Coffee Roasters

Talking Crow is a coffee roaster out of Washington. While they offer a wide variety of coffee options, they have a special niche in the decaf market. Their decaf coffee uses the Swiss Water Process, which is a decaffeination process that “relies on caffeine solubility (dissolvability) and osmosis to remove caffeine from green coffee beans.”¹ You can read more about the Swiss Water Process on their site or in this great article on the Kauai Coffee site.

My experience with decaf coffee has only been lackluster to say the least, so I was excited to try high-quality decaf coffee to see how it compared to other non-decaf options in the same profile.

The coffee begins with a nice, smooth aroma of dried fruit, berry and chocolate and was on par with any other coffee I’ve tried recently. As I began to taste the coffee, I could identify dark chocolate and nutty notes, but had a really hard time identifying any berry or fruit notes I’d expect both from the aroma and the style of coffee (a naturally processed coffee from Ethiopia). It also lacked the strong acidity I’d expect in a coffee from this genre. The body was very smooth though and I really enjoyed the long, smooth finished it delivered with each sip.

The Bottom Line

While I don’t think this coffee was as good as some other naturally processed Ethiopian coffees I’ve tried recently, compared to other decaf coffee options I’ve tried it was much better. For anyone sensitive to caffeine or looking for a good decaf option for later in the day, this and the other decaf options from Talking Crow Coffee Roasters are great choices.