About the Coffee Grupo San Augustin Los Cauchos is a producer group in Cauca, Colombia, farming Caturra and Typica at elevation in a region with deep roots. The area takes its name from the ancient San Agustín civilization, which flourished around 1,000 B.C. near the headwaters of the Magdalena River before disappearing before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. The only traces left behind were burial sites, now protected within the archaeological park El Alto de Los Idolos, founded in 1960. The coffee farmers here eventually began organizing around that same land, forming a group focused on improving quality together. The producers in this group initially came together to share ideas and coordinate sales. Over time, they shifted focus toward standardizing their farming practices, refining their processing, and upgrading their drying patios. That ongoing work has produced measurable improvements in cup quality. The coffee is washed (fermented and rinsed with water to remove the fruit layer before drying), then decaffeinated using the sugarcane ethyl acetate process, which uses a naturally derived solvent to remove caffeine while leaving the coffee's core flavors largely intact. This process happens at origin in Colombia, which keeps the supply chain shorter and reduces the carbon footprint compared to shipping green coffee overseas for decaffeination. Traffic sources this coffee because it clears a specific bar: it started as a high-quality lot before decaffeination, not a coffee redirected to decaf because it underperformed. The sugarcane EA process is gentler than older decaf methods like Swiss Water or chemical solvent processing, and doing it close to origin means the coffee moves through fewer hands before it's roasted. About Traffic Traffic Coffee was founded by Greg Lancot and Jessie Lewin in Montréal. Both came to roasting with a background in creative work, and that shows in how they approach the business, starting with packaging that uses bold illustrations and vivid color to give each coffee its own visual identity. On the sourcing side, Traffic uses small-batch roasting and focuses on building direct relationships with farmers. Their approach to green coffee tends to fall into two camps: letting a well-grown varietal speak for itself, or leaning into more experimental processing methods when the coffee calls for it. The decaf program fits the same standard they apply to everything else they buy. "Traffic's breadth of coffee is remarkable - from dark roasts reminiscent of your grandmother's kitchen, to wild co-ferments with tasting notes we admittedly have to look up. The packaging and the coffee inside is meant to captivate you, and I hope you feel the same when you try this coffee." - Dean, Director of Coffee
