This decaffeinated lot is a collaboration of coffee producers within the Monkaaba network in San Agustin, Colombia. Harvested in 2025, the coffee is grown at altitudes between 1600 and 1900 meters. It is a sweetness-forward coffee with a soft, pillowy mouthfeel. The flavor profile features notes of brown sugar, wafer cookie, and subtle hints of orange. The coffee undergoes a fermentation process before being decaffeinated using ethyl acetate.
Rebecca Grossman and Lucas Smith founded Ilse in 2019, starting with a thousand dollars and a rented roaster in Stamford before building out their own facility in a converted mechanic's garage in North Canaan. The approach is quality-driven: light roasts, single-producer microlots, and a commitment to buying entire harvests from the same farms year after year, some relationships now stretch back to the beginning. Pricing is transparent; each bag lists what the producer was paid, the FOB price, and Ilse's cost. Sourcing focuses on Central and South America and East Africa, with Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia, and Ethiopia appearing regularly.
